Nippan and PubteX Verify RFID Tags Can Boost Bookstore Sales While Reducing Store Operations Workload

Nippon Shuppan Hanbai Inc. (Nippan) and PubteX Inc. conducted a proof-of-concept experiment to verify whether RF tags can help bookstores achieve both sales maximization and labor-saving store operations, contributing to sustainable bookstore management. The companies announced that the experiment successfully achieved both goals and established reproducible store operations for replenishment and display management. RF tags enable item-level management of books based on detailed sales and inventory data such as when, what, how many, and where. They are therefore attracting attention as a technology for advancing digital transformation in bookstore operations. As of February 18, 2026, PubteX RF tags have been attached to new comic and paperback releases from 13 publishers and are increasingly used in bookstores for loss reduction, sales-floor management, and analysis. Nippan has also been working with industry partners to promote publishing DX and reform toward sustainable publishing distribution. The experiment was conducted at Ayumi BOOKS Suginami supported by Hontasu, a store operated by Nippan. It used PubteX RF tags and sales-floor inventory and sales data obtained from BOOKTRAIL, PubteX’s book traceability system. The test ran for about six months, from August 4, 2025 to January 31, 2026. The target products were new comic releases with RF tags, while the sales of all in-store comic inventory were analyzed. Two hypotheses were tested. First, changing display operations using RF tags would increase sales of new comics. Second, such changes would improve sales of the entire comic category, including backlist titles. During the first half of the test period, the store used its conventional display operations. During the second half, the store changed display operations across the comic sales floor based on data obtained in the first period. The operational changes included: displaying new comics in multiple locations, including both the prime new-release area near the entrance and an additional new-release area depending on incoming volume and days since release; maintaining at least one copy in the catalog shelf at all times by using a comic catalog replenishment tool developed from BOOKTRAIL data; and clarifying replacement criteria for flat-table displays by using a comic flat-table replacement tool that lists display duration and sales over the most recent two and four weeks. The result for the first hypothesis was an approximately 15% increase in monthly sales of new comics. After excluding the top 10 best-selling items to remove the impact of major hit releases, average monthly sales of new comics increased by about 15% in the second period. Products more than one month after release were also confirmed to continue selling. For the second hypothesis, overall comic sales, including both new and backlist titles, outperformed the national average. In the second period, Ayumi BOOKS Suginami recorded 99.5% year-on-year comic sales, compared with the national average of 90.5%, exceeding it by 9.0 percentage points. The companies believe the operational changes optimized the overall comic sales floor without damaging backlist comic sales. From the perspective of labor savings and reproducibility, BOOKTRAIL enabled real-time centralized visualization of inventory, sales, and display days by sales floor, reducing work time. Even Ayumi BOOKS Suginami, which operates with a single employee during daytime hours, was able to incorporate the process into daily operations. The catalog replenishment tool and comic flat-table replacement tool turned tasks that had depended on individual judgment and multiple data sources into quantitative and reproducible digital operations, confirming both employee reproducibility and store reproducibility. Nippan and PubteX will continue collaborating to identify effective uses of RF tags that advance DX across the publishing industry. They plan to work with publishers to expand tag attachment and create an environment where RFID data can be used for a broader range of products. They will also improve functions rooted in frontline store operations, develop user-friendly systems for daily work, contribute to sales-floor optimization and publishing distribution efficiency through RFID, and cooperate on solving supply-chain issues that have long concerned the industry.