Walmart was a big proponent of RFID stickers in the early 2000s and even tested it in Dallas area Walmart and Sam's Club stores, but it was too expensive to put on a 99-cent bottle of shampoo.

RFID tags, price stickers for retail, were supposed to replace the trusty bar code, but 20 years ago, the technology was still too expensive.

Now more and more company are betting that the adoption of radio frequency identification tags is about to spread throughout the industry, particularly in apparel, shoes, cosmetics and home goods.

Consumers will find their size and color in stock more often, and millions of retail workers, who have to physically count or scan items one at a time, will be happier. RFID tags, price stickers for retail, cut down the time it takes to inventory a store from days to hours. Waving a scanner across a table of folded sweaters or jeans or a rack of blouses captures inventory information faster and more accurately.

有些商店工作ng with 70 percent accuracy in their inventory, and that's weak for retailers trying to merge their online and in-store businesses for shoppers. Only about 8 percent of the industry — mostly single-branded stores — is using RFID tags, price stickers for retail. Stores that have adopted RFID tags have increased sales from 2% to 9% while reducing inventory by as much as 10%.

Walmart was a big proponent of RFID tags in the early 2000s and even tested it in Dallas-area Walmart and Sam's Club stores. Many in retailing thought that tags would eventually replace the bar codes on consumer product packaging. The cost of a tag back then was as much as a dollar, so it wasn't cost effective except for big pallets of merchandise. To add an RFID tag to a piece of apparel costs about 6 cents now.

As for future uses, it's being talked about in the pharmacy business and in the airline industry for luggage tags.