Nike, Macy's trial blockchain to share product data across the retail supply chain

The study, named the ‘Chain Integration Project’ (CHIP), saw the retailers and others run Hyperledger Fabric nodes on a slice of their large supply chains. The blockchain tech enabled sharing serialised data after following tens of thousands of products as they moved between distribution centres.

Furthermore, RFID Lab is one of the most prominent outposts for US retailers’ experiments with emerging supply chain tech, according to CoinDesk. So far, many retailers have tested radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to keep the inventory up to date. However, different retailers’ tags store data differently and there’s little to no data interoperability.

That gave the RFID Lab two opportunities: build retailers a common language and build them a platform. The proof of concept ultimately saw thousands of products matched across its nodes. In total, 222,974 items were written onto the blockchain, according to the study. It needs to take on more, though, if it is to go mainstream.

RFID Lab will now take its blockchain study to a ‘consultancy’ phase of sorts, trying to understand just how much value DLT and RFID data sharing systems can offer the businesses.