RFID Journal LIVE!, one of the key conferences dedicated to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies across multiple end markets, takes place May 6 – 8. Leading RFID suppliers will exhibit their innovations; the show lineup this year is particularly hardware-heavy, focused on reader infrastructure and labeling, but some important software suppliers will be present, too.
Additionally, addressing a concern from previous years, the show will feature more adopters highlighting their success stories across a wide range of end markets, demonstrating the opportunities from RFID technologies not only in retail markets, but also beyond.
ABI Research has identified 5 key trends to be on the lookout for at the show:
1. Tariffs
Tariffs are likely to be a major topic of conversation, with both direct and indirect impacts on the RFID market.
In terms of direct impacts, the greatest impact is likely to be on the reader market. Many of the largest RFID reader suppliers manufacture devices in China or other countries in Southeast Asia. These include traditional reader manufacturers like Impinj and Zebra, as well as fast-growing Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) like Chainway and UROVO, which have been making efforts to enter the traditional U.S. RFID distribution channels and primarily differentiating their hardware on cost. Additionally, major module-based reader device deals are OEM-manufactured in China. Given that the United States is the largest market for RFID, major projects are in the offing, and reader hardware accounts for the highest upfront cost of a project, tariffs requiring onshoring or near-shoring of manufacturing operations are likely to play a disruptive role.
The direct impact on the inlay market is more equivocal. Certainly, the majority of endpoint Integrated Circuits (ICs) are manufactured in China and Taiwan, which will affect inlays manufactured or converted in the United States. But inlays converted in China and applied to apparel there are not saleable items, and are unlikely to come under the tariff remit. Furthermore, companies have been making efforts to diversify their supply chains, with the most recent example being Avery Dennison opening facilities in India (2025) and Mexico (2024).
Indirect impacts are likely more significant, however. In times of economic uncertainty and downturn, adopter belts tighten and investments are put on hold. Not only do adopter belts tighten, but consumer belts tighten, too, so that they spend less on RFID-tagged products, with a knock-on effect to RFID label sales. Such was the case in 2023 in the apparel industry, which saw a flat-to-negative year. While the National Retail Foundation (NRF) predicts a growth of between 2.7% and 3.7%, uncertainty will be weighing on the RFID industry’s mind.
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2. Digital Product Passports
Years in the planning, Digital Product Passport (DPP) initiatives are seeing growing adoption and are more clearly on adopters’ roadmaps. These initiatives are designed to enable product traceability from point of manufacture to the end consumer, and beyond into resale and recycling. Item-level traceability is the key value proposition of RFID—and suppliers will be looking to get the message out about the incoming regulations. However, Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) RFID is not yet supported in the GS1 standard for DPP—though it very likely will be. Supplier messaging will focus more on the additional value that can be created from item-level data to persuade adopters that using RFID as the primary data carrier will reap dividends.
First, look out for conversations around dual-frequency UHF RFID and Near Field Communication (NFC) inlays. While NFC is in the same position as RFID regarding GS1 standard support, its consumer focus makes it an attractive data carrier to fulfill the consumer interaction requirement of the DPP. EM Microelectronic is the key supplier for dual-frequency ICs, with inlays created by Avery Dennison, Identiv, and a number of others.
Second, pay attention to Qualcomm’s initiatives as it looks to support UHF natively in its chips, a crucial step to enabling UHF RFID to be used by consumers. The RAIN Alliance doubled down on this step in March 2025 by announcing work on a standard to integrate UHF in smartphones; understanding timelines and technical challenges will be key in defining UHF RFID’s right to play in the DPP space.
Third, back-end support will be crucial to allowing RFID to be used in DPP applications. Seagull Software will be exhibiting its solutions: applications targeted at item-level visibility and traceability, and with a heavy vertical market focus to meet the needs—DPP and otherwise—of customers in different industries.
3. Reader Form Factors
Reader form factors are evolving quickly to meet the needs of adopters, and RFID Journal LIVE! will demonstrate new offerings.
First, fixed reader infrastructure, and in particular overhead readers, will be on display, enabling adopters to move from point-in-time manual scanning to autonomous “always-on” scanning. Key companies to look out for include PervasID talking about its TrackMaster 2X reader, as well as Zebra with its well-received ATR7000 reader.
Second, innovation is also coming to handheld devices as adopters require greater compute power to run applications locally on a single device, enabling workflow efficiency. Look out for Best New Product award finalists Zebra (for its EM45 device) and Chainway (for its MC51 device), both demonstrating their newly released enterprise smartphones.
Third, an increasing number of RFID reader device designs are based on RFID modules, enabling adopters to integrate RFID capabilities into a broader range of infrastructure—from medication cabinets to Internet of Things (IoT) gateways. RFID reader suppliers have been broadening their portfolios to offer modules, enabling them to capitalize on this growing market.
4. Inlay Innovation
Inlays continue to undergo innovation. Some key examples include two other Best New Product finalists: Tageos with its Liqr Stiq (designed for passive liquid sensing applications)and Checkpoint with its Smart Sleeve (designed for embedding inlays directly into product packaging). Hana RFID and Avery Dennison are among other companies with innovative product launches in the past 12 months.
5. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the buzzword of the technology industry, and it would be surprising not to see it at RFID Journal LIVE!. While AI and Machine Learning (ML) play a limited direct role for RFID suppliers, look out for suppliers’ messaging about the benefits of applying AI to the vast treasure troves of item-level data that adopters are gathering. This messaging will be directed at both adopters and system integrators to encourage them to buy into the RFID narrative and create new levels of analysis and insights—the key to driving adoption of RFID technologies themselves. Look out for Optimum Retailing, a supplier looking to generate better insights for store merchandising and planning using its “AI-driven platform.”
Get in touch if you are an adopter or solution provider and would like to set up a meeting to discuss what you need to do to capitalize on the resurgent RFID opportunity. Contact us today!