What Retailers Can Learn from Carter's RFID Journey

Carter's just pulled off what many retailers thought was impossible. In only three months, the iconic children's apparel brand rolled out RFID technology across 700 stores: improving accuracy on every item and making life easier for both store teams and customers. In this episode, Gina Maddaloni and Anna Marie Blackburn from Carter's join hosts Reid Jackson and Liz Sertl to discuss how RFID became central to Carter's retail operations, what it took to win buy-in across the company, and how it is improving both inventory management and customer experience. You'll also hear how Carter's uses RFID to cut payroll costs for year-end inventory by 50 percent, why the rollout became a recruiting tool for store teams, and where the company sees new opportunities to extend RFID into supply chain operations. In this episode, you'll learn: How Carter's achieved one of the fastest RFID deployments in retail Why RFID is no longer "too complex" or "too expensive" What's next as Carter's expands RFID use into its supply chain operations Jump into the conversation: (00:00) Introducing Next Level Supply Chain (01:29) Anna Marie and Gina's backgrounds (03:52) What RFID technology means for retail (06:47) The process of rolling out RFID across Carter's stores (13:21) RFID's impact on Carter's operational efficiency (17:49) RFID as a recruiting tool for store teams (18:54) Asset protection benefits and peace of mind (19:34) Expanding RFID into DC operations (21:35) What's next, Carter's move toward serialization (23:01) Advice for companies starting their RFID journey (24:02) Busting RFID myths: cost, complexity, and adoption (26:29) Favorite tech beyond RFID (29:22) What Gina and Anna Marie want to learn next Connect with GS1 US: Our website - GS1 US on LinkedIn Connect with the guests: Gina Maddaloni on LinkedIn Anna Marie Blackburn on LinkedIn Check out Carter's Learn more about the GS1 US Solution Partner Program:

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What Retailers Can Learn from Carter's RFID Journey is an episode from Next Level Supply Chain with GS1 US by GS1 US.

This episode is 32:21 long.

This episode was published on Aug 27, 2025.

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