Labeling and tagging products are more complicated than you’d think. “It’s an education, a continuing one,” says Craig Meadow, president of Arch Crown, a supplier of tags, labels and printing systems. The purpose — inventory control, description, security or promotion — dictates what you’ll look for. The star is rising for additional radio frequency ID labeling systems. Can’t afford to buy one, you say? Manufacturers like Gem-Where have begun leasing them.

1. Norma display cubes in a store setting.

2. Poly-laminate thermal transfer computer-generated tags, $138.75 per 5,000-tag roll from Arch Crown, available in eight colors.

3. Button-fast tags, available in 16 different colors from Arch Crown. Prices begin at $64.30 per thousand.

4. The Honeywell Voyager is a battery-free, wireless laser bar-code scanner from Arch Crown.

5. Norma pricing cubes by Lansa; 260 pieces per pack, $194, available through Kassoy, measure 5mm by 6mm and have white numbering.

6. Gem-Where radio frequency ID tag labeling offers View-It software to allow customers to learn about the choice they’re making. The system can be purchased or leased.

7. String tags from Arch Crown can fit any piece of jewelry. They begin at $56.45 per thousand.

8. These molded, no-return tags keep your jewelry from going on a joy ride. $38.50 per hundred from Arch Crown.

Points to Consider

What are you looking for? An accounting and inventory system? Or do you just want to print tags? Direct-transfer labeling offers more options in materials, adhesives and colors. So color can be used to signify a certain stone or designer or a sale, says Craig Meadow, president of Arch Crown.

What do you want your tags to say? “Most anybody with a turnkey POS system will need bar coding. Now you can print so much information with direct-transfer technology. We can put four to five lines on each side of the tag if it’s large enough,” Meadow says.

Consider your budget. “A bar-code label printing system is $725, which includes a special printer and software. The labels themselves are $150 for 4,000, says Gaby Oleksnianski, president of Jewelry Display Inc.

Is RFID practical for small businesses? The key advantage is its convenience — you don’t have to scan items individually like you do with bar codes, says Bill Belpanno, account executive for Kassoy. “You can point a wand at a showcase of RFID-labeled rings and immediately know which one is missing. Just taking care of shrinkage is going to save you money.”

How much does RFID cost? Disposable RFID tags cost 25 to 50 cents each. “But there’s also a chip you can insert between the two layers of a tag and it’s reusable from 7,000 to 10,000 times,” Belpanno says. “The cost for hardware and 200 chips is about $6,000. That excludes software, but you integrate it with your existing inventory system.”

Retailer Take

Kelli Jacobsen
Manager, Vernon Jewelers, Salina, KS

• “I’m the third generation in this store — we’ve been here since 1884. When I came in I said, ‘We are computerizing!’ Before that, labeling took a lot of patience and there were a lot of boo-boos. We carry at least 5,000 items. It took us a year to convert. But once you’ve done that, it’s easy to keep it going.”
• “We put all the information on our labels, everything: what kind, how many carats, the quality, the price. I make them up on the computer program and shoot them out.”
• “I found the best way to put rattails on without getting any stickiness on necklaces is to go through the clasp, under the spring rings. With rings, if you use a loose loop, you won’t get adhesive on the rings.”

This article originally appeared in the January 2016 edition of INSTORE.