Benetton clothing to carry tracking transmitters

Clothes sold at Benetton stores will soon contain microchip transmitters that allow the Italian retailer to track its garments from their point of manufacture to the moment they are sold in any of its 5,000 shops worldwide.

Benetton’s introduction of “smart tag” tracking technology will be the largest example of a trend now emerging in the retail industry, according to Phillips Semiconductors, a unit of the Dutch electronics giant that designed 15 million tags being delivered to Benetton this year.