AUTHOR COPY International Journal of RF Technologies 3 (2011/2012) 137–158 DOI 10.3233/RFT-2012-024 IOS Press 137 Performances of RFID, acousto-magnetic and radio frequency technologies for electronic article surveillance in the apparel industry in Europe: A quantitative study Eleonora Bottani ∗ , Gino Ferretti, Roberto Montanari, Antonio Rizzi and Andrea Volpi Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Parma, Parma, Italy Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potentials of implementing UHF Class 1 Gen 2 RFID technology to support Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) applications in the apparel supply chain. The study consists of two parts. The first one aims at quantitatively assessing the technical performance achievable by means of RFID technology, and is carried out through an extensive experimental campaign, considering 14 different common stealing patterns, derived both from the literature and from the suggestions received from a panel of experts belonging to 6 major Italian fashion companies. The same tests were performed exploiting two common EAS technologies, such as acousto-magnetic (AM) and radio frequency (RF), so as to provide a quantitative comparison of outcomes for each theft scenario. The second part of the study examines the economic feasibility of replacing traditional AM or RF technologies by RFID technology for antitheft purpose. The assessment is grounded on a real case example, derived from the analysis of three fashion retail stores. Results of the tests show that RFID and AM perform better than RF in most of the scenarios examined, and that both RFID and AM technologies have some strengths and weaknesses. As regards the economic analysis, the business case shows that the investment required for implementing RFID technology for antitheft purpose in a typical fashion retail store is limited, and can be quickly paid back, thus providing an economic justification to this technology. This study represents a good starting point for the apparel industry to look at RFID as a promising technology for EAS applications. Keywords: EAS, RFID, acousto-magnetic, radio frequency, testing procedure, business case 1. Introduction and literature review Shrinkage, both in the apparel industry and in retail, is indeed a major issue world- wide and especially in Europe. The Global Retail Theft Barometer (2010) quantifies that shrinkage cost retailers $107.3 billion from June 2009 to July 2010, thus account- ing for 1.36% of global retail sales. The European rate is 1.27%. While shrinkage has reduced from the previous year, some of the most stolen items, such as children’s ∗ Corresponding author: Eleonora Bottani, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Parma, viale G.P. Usberti 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy. Tel.: +39 0521 905872; Fax: +39 0521 905705; E-mail: Eleonora.bottani@unipr.it. 1754-5730/11/12/$27.50 © 2011/2012 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved