Fukumi opens bricks and mortar NFC tag store with UPM RFID in Tokyo

Fukumi opens bricks and mortar NFC tag store with UPM RFID in Tokyo

The Fukumi Corporation has opened the world’s first physical bricks and mortar NFC store in Tokyo. It was bound to happen and it probably isn’t too surprising that it happened in Tokyo, and that UPM RFID were involved. We all know that the humble NFC tag has a huge future ahead of it, embedded in products and for home users to write to and create some fancy actions that simply make life a little easier. However, where to get your NFC tag has thus far involved a search online with a one way information source. So, if you want to know what NFC tag is best for your project you have had no one to ask. With that said, there are Android apps like TapThatTag that help you refine your choices and choose the best NFC tag.

“Fukumi’s shop is the first physical NFC shop in the world with a complete service concept built around NFC tags. To date UPM RFID has participated in the opening of the world’s first online NFC shop for custom NFC tags, and also played a role in the development of the first mobile app for ordering NFC tags. We are now honoured to be participating in the opening of this first ever physical NFC store,” says Edward Lu, Sales and Marketing Director, APAC, UPM RFID.

At the end of  the day though, when you are new in the NFC space and you are trying to work out what you need and how you complete whatever it is you want to with NFC, there is sometimes no substitute for a real person to speak with. We expect the Fukumi NFC store to be the first of many around the world, but it is the first. The store is aptly titled RFID / NFC Real Touch Shop. We are not sure we would have used “Real Touch” as our title if our holding company was called “Fukumi”, but nonetheless the store represents NFC becoming main stream. Japan has always been a step ahead when it comes to NFC and that doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

Consumers get to learn about UPM RFID NFC tag products and uses in the Fukumi NFC shop

All NFC tag products in the store come from UPM RFID and consumers can pick up as many NFC tags as their hearts desire. The store is said to allow both beginners and professional NFC smartphone users to ‘tap and touch’ and learn more about and experience the opportunities of NFC technology in real-life applications. We aren’t sure what a professional smartphone user is, but we think it’s safe to assume that advice is on hand for whichever level of product or NFC tag usage consumers have in mind, whatever their experience level. The outfit also have an online NFC and RFID store that can be found here.

“Fukumi has been a member of the UPM Pro RFID Alliance since 2010, supplying UPM RFID products to various Japanese distribution companies. With the real shop we aim to be the leading NFC player in the region offering a wide variety of high-quality UPM RFID NFC tags and inlays,” explains Yoshihiro Fukumi, President at Fukumi Corporation.

Smart posters are dotted around the store and consumers can play with different projects for inspiration. The store is a great educational resource for NFC and we’d love to see more like it spinning up everywhere. However, here in the States we will probably see mobile network operators start selling NFC tag products before specific stores. That’s because they are currently holding NFC back and will want to monetize it in-store as soon and the technology becomes more pervasive.

UPM RFID once again shows that they are exploring opportunity with NFC tag based products in a plethora of scenarios and with the upcoming buyout of UPM by Smartrac, who will focus entirely on NFC and RFID ,we will probably see a lot more announcements of this type.