2026 RTIH Innovation Awards RFID Project of the Year finalists include Checkpoint Systems and RADAR
We’re pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards RFID Project of the Year category. We received a record number of entries this year and many fantastic examples of technology excellence driving transformative change across the global retail sector.
Check out a rundown of our 2026 shortlists and finalists here.
Congratulations to all those who made it through the initial submission process! It’s now over to our star studded judging panel who will decide the winners to be announced at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony, taking place at The HAC in Central London.
The event will be held on Wednesday, 4th November and consist of a drinks reception, three course meal, awards ceremony presided over by award winning stand-up comedian, presenter, actor and broadcaster, Aurie Styla, and after party until 1am.
Click here to book your place at the 2026 RTIH Innovation Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, 4th November.
Our 2026 RFID Project of the Year finalists as follows:
Checkpoint Systems and JD Sports
JD Sports is transforming inventory management across its European estate using RFID technology. Following a 2024 pilot with Checkpoint Systems, RFID was deployed to over 400 UK and Ireland stores during 2025, with the remaining 680 European stores targeted by October 2026.
Checkpoint’s ItemOptix software provides them with real-time inventory visibility, improving stock accuracy, shelf replenishment and product availability while enabling more advanced, data-driven retail operations for the future. RFID is also being extended across JD Sports’ European distribution centres, combining ItemOptix software with RFID tunnel technology to improve inventory visibility throughout their supply chain.
Edgbaston and Levy
The Edgbaston RFID Smart Cup System transformed the management of reusable cups during the 2026 cricket season. Replacing a legacy deposit refund process with RFID enabled cup validation, the solution ensured deposits could only be refunded when a genuine deposit backed cup was scanned.
Alongside improving financial controls, the system enhanced cup return performance, reduced cup losses, lowered staffing requirements and delivered a more efficient returns operation across major sporting events. The project combined RFID technology, automated validation and operational process redesign to create a scalable circular economy solution. Across the first full season, the system achieved a 95.7% cup return rate, improved deposit integrity and generated significant labour and security savings, demonstrating both commercial and sustainability benefits.
Lager 157 and ClarityRFID
Lager 157, a Swedish fashion retailer, has partnered with ClarityRFID to pilot the Clarity Store solution across three stores in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
Over three months, the pilot replaced manual stock counting and shipment receiving with real-time, item level RFID data, lifting stock accuracy to as high as 98-99.8% and SKU accuracy to as high as 97% in participating stores.
For a retailer built on product, price and word of mouth trust rather than traditional marketing, that level of inventory visibility strengthens the promise at the centre of the brand: knowing exactly what's in stock, in which size and colour, at which store. Lager 157 and ClarityRFID are now working toward a full production roll-out across the retailer's six-country store network, planned for 2027.
RADAR
RADAR lays claim to being the only vertically integrated provider of overhead RFID, delivering perpetual, item level inventory intelligence for retail at scale.
Through item detection and location sensing today, and expanding user behavior analytics over time, RADAR gives retailers the ability to measure their physical stores the way they already measure their ecommerce business, turning one accurate inventory foundation into a different advantage for every function of the business.
As of Q3 2026, RADAR is deployed across more than 1,700 stores and 21 million square feet of retail space, indexing over 55 million products and processing more than 130 billion tag reads daily.
