Interview: Aileen Ryan on the 2025 correction, grocery, and RAIN-enabled smartphones

RAIN tag chip shipments fell from a record 52.8 billion in 2024 to 42.7 billion in 2025, the first decline the sector has had to explain. Ahead of RAIN in Action in Madrid, we put six questions to the head of the RAIN Alliance on whether that was a blip or a reset, why grocery is being named as the next inflexion, whether the EU Digital Product Passport deadline has overtaken ROI as the reason anyone deploys, and what she thinks actually unlocks the next phase.

The honest state of the industry. 2024 was a record year at 52.8 billion tag chips shipped, then 2025 corrected hard to 42.7 billion. From where you sit, was that a blip, a reset, or the industry growing up, and where is RAIN really at as we head into 2027?

You’re right that the 2025 figure represents a decline from the record heights of 2024, but this makes sense when viewed in the context of wider economic conditions. Shipments last year were faced with semiconductor inventory cycles and wider market turbulence caused by global tariffs, with retail destocking adding further pressure.

Despite the blip of 2025, the RAIN RFID market has grown around 50% over the past four years, so the longer-term picture remains one of growth. As we head into 2027, we’re also seeing the emergence of new potential growth drivers, with broader mandates in retail as RAIN RFID expands into new categories such as beauty and cosmetics, notable new mandates emerging in logistics, and early momentum in grocery, a sector with enormous long-term potential. RAIN-enabled smartphones in particular look set to open the technology to new consumer and field-based applications, with the EU Digital Product Passport (DPP) regulation making the case for the item-level visibility provided by data carriers such as RAIN being more relevant than ever.

Why this summit, why now? Amsterdam sold out, you have brought RAIN in Action to Madrid and ECR Retail Loss has co-located its RFID in Retail Innovation Summit with the event. What does that pairing say about where RAIN adoption actually is in 2026?

Madrid is an ideal host city, combining world-class logistics infrastructure with a strong retail and fashion ecosystem, including the headquarters of some of the world’s largest apparel retailers. As a key gateway between Europe and Latin America, it is an accessible location that makes it easy for the industries driving RAIN adoption to come together.

Enabling the ECR Retail Loss ‘2026 RFID in Retail Innovation Summit’ to co-locate with RAIN in Action felt like a natural fit, reflecting both the widespread adoption of RAIN technology within retail and the strong relationship we have built with the group over the past two years through shared areas of interest and collaboration. The evolution of its usage within the industry is also a prime example of how RAIN technology is moving from infrastructure to impact, as deployments move along the maturity scale. The mix of organisations attending and speaking at both events also points to a market moving towards broader ecosystem integration, with retailers, brands, logistics operators, reader providers, software companies and integrators coming together. The co-location also makes it easier for attendees to engage with both communities during a single trip, creating valuable opportunities for knowledge sharing and industry collaboration.

As far as what it means for RAIN adoption in 2026, both within and beyond retail, we’re seeing deployment applications diversify. Maturity still varies by market, sector and organisation, but we’re seeing how usage can be integrated into broader systems, scaled and connected across different operating environments to drive the maximum benefit of the item-level visibility that RAIN provides. This is especially true as businesses turn to technologies such as AI, with RAIN data forming the backbone of these systems by providing the accurate, real-time insights needed to deliver meaningful outcomes and deeper business intelligence.

The chipmakers are pointing at food and grocery as the next inflexion, especially in retail. Do you buy it, and what has to be true for grocery to go the way apparel did?

Food and grocery is certainly one of the sectors where we’re seeing more and more products tagged with RAIN. The technology addresses several existing challenges at once, including traceability, food safety, inventory accuracy, waste reduction and operational efficiency. Demand is also strengthened by increasing regulation, with requirements such as the FDA’s FSMA 204 increasing the need for accurate, accessible traceability data, which RAIN-enabled intelligent labels can support.

For grocery to follow apparel's adoption path at scale, the use of RAIN RFID needs to extend across the wider ecosystem. Consistent adoption by suppliers, manufacturers, logistics operators and retailers would allow data to follow products throughout the supply chain, combining RAIN data with cloud platforms, temperature sensors and predictive analytics to help identify spoilage risks earlier, reduce waste and enable more proactive safety management. Continued RAIN innovation is enabling retailers to extend item-level tagging into new departments without changing store workflows, making that ecosystem-wide data flow feasible across the cold chain. For example, protein products can now be tagged thanks to inlays engineered for high-moisture, dense, sub-zero environments.

The regulation clock. Digital Product Passports are coming on an EU timetable whether the industry is ready or not, and you have put a DPP specialist on your own staff. Is regulation now a bigger driver of RAIN adoption than ROI?

While regulation is a catalyst for adoption, it is not replacing ROI. DPP requirements are certainly creating urgency, particularly in sectors such as textiles and apparel, but RAIN already has countless established commercial use cases across multiple sectors.

I’d say it’s more that DPP is adding a new regulatory and circularity driver for RAIN deployments, with the same infrastructure able to create operational value beyond compliance. For instance, product data created for traceability can be more broadly leveraged across supply chains and internal business operations for loss prevention, predictive maintenance and inventory control to name just a few applications.

We also know that RAIN can evolve into a strategic financial instrument, far more than just a single use-case. As outlined in our recently published DPP Evolution Model, adoption progresses from supporting brand integrity, recommerce and fraud reduction to enabling new sources of value through ecosystem-wide data sharing and collaboration. By integrating RAIN data into core operating models, organisations can unlock the full benefits of circularity, create new revenue opportunities, and support the shift towards service-based business models such as rental, repair and subscription services.

ROI is often demonstrated with a single initial use case, but we’re now seeing ROI extended as end users layer use cases on top of one another to make the most of their deployment investment. As each new use case is deployed, returns continue to grow. For instance, by the time DPP requirements come into force, the investment has already been justified through operational and commercial gains, making compliance an additional benefit rather than the primary driver of adoption.

“While regulation is a catalyst for adoption, it is not replacing ROI.”

Your definition of success. When the last session in Madrid ends, what has to have happened for you to call it a success? Not attendance numbers, but what changes in the industry because those three days happened.

As deployments expand, interoperability will only become more important and RAIN in Action is a great opportunity to bring brands, solution providers, technology partners and policymakers together and foster the collaboration to make this happen.

Some of the most valuable insights emerge when organisations recognise that the trusted RAIN data infrastructure and methodologies used in one area of their business can also solve wider challenges by learning about usage in seemingly unrelated industries. For example, the systems used to authenticate medicine can also help protect consumers from counterfeit luxury goods, while the infrastructure supporting cold-chain compliance for perishable products can equally ensure vaccines, medicines and blood products remain safe and effective.

Cross-sector learning, information sharing, and relationship-building are therefore critical outcomes of the event. By bringing together such diverse perspectives around a common trusted data platform, RAIN in Action can help the community move beyond discussions of technology and focus on the tangible impact that RAIN infrastructure delivers across industries.

Anything needed for the next RAIN breakthrough. Is there anything still holding RAIN adoption back that nobody says on stage?

The biggest impact on RAIN adoption in the coming years will be much discussed at RAIN in Action, which is the rollout of RAIN-enabled consumer smartphones.

In the near future, every shopper will have access to a smartphone capable of reading item-level tags, meaning the entire in-store experience will change. This will enable them to locate and compare products and get the same personalised in-store experience as they do online, as well as have a record of their own possessions at home, accessible from their smartphone, each entry having its own verifiable identity, warranty position and service history.

However, for end users to trust and rely on these systems, the industry must get the fundamentals right the first time, from globally unique encoding and appropriate power levels and duty cycles, to selecting tags that meet the required quality standards for each deployment. These ‘best practice’ factors are critical to ensuring consistent, reliable performance at scale and engendering end user trust. Supporting this is a key role of the RAIN Alliance through work such as training courses and manufacturing quality guidance.

There isn’t necessarily anything holding this back that wouldn’t be said on stage, but there are certainly conversations that the RAIN Alliance smartphones workgroups are having behind the scenes that are advancing forwards implementation.