Impinj talks to Xindeco about expansion of VersaTrack family

Last year, Xindeco IoT announced its tiny VersaMini M800 RAIN RFID retail tags were being utilized by global retailer MINISO to expand RAIN RFID connectivity to jewelry, cosmetics, and other small form factor items across their over 8,400 global stores.

Building on VersaMini’s success, Xindeco IoT is now expanding its VersaTrack tag family with Gen2X support and introducing two additional tags – VersaMax and VersaNano. These VersaTrack tags are designed to extend the value of RAIN RFID to even smaller form factors and improve performance in challenging use cases.

Impinj recently talked with Xindeco’s Leo Ren, general manager – R&D, about the VersaTrack family, the emergence of embedded tagging, and how M800 ICs with Gen2X support are boosting small tag reading performance and unlocking new use cases at enterprises around the world.

Impinj: Xindeco’s VersaMini tags quickly proved successful with customers. Why did you expand the family with VersaMax and VersaNano?

Ren: Following the launch of VersaMini, its exceptional performance in demanding application scenarios earned significant recognition from our customers, which bolstered our confidence in its potential for expansion. We learned that customers needed both smaller and higher-performance versions for different SKU types.

To meet diverse tag dimension requirements across various retail product categories, we decided to evolve VersaMini into the VersaTrack series. By offering a comprehensive product portfolio, we can better serve our clients. The new VersaMax tag represents the performance pinnacle of the series.

Specifically designed for high-density stacking and complex metal/liquid environments, it enables the highest level of read performance for the most challenging use cases especially when using Gen2X. The new VersaNano tag focuses on breakthroughs in “ultra-small” dimensions. Thanks to our Trim-Tolerant Technology and support for Gen2X, it retains reliable RFID performance even at a minimal form factor.

These two new tags build upon our proven VersaMini tag, which remains the cornerstone of the series. It achieves a perfect balance between size and performance, suitable for the vast majority of standard retail scenarios.

Impinj: What type of use cases does the new VersaMax tag enable, and how does Gen2X support help?

Ren: The name “Max” represents both the superior performance of this product within the VersaTrack series and its high adaptability to various application environments. In our video, we used a handheld RFID reader to scan a densely packed box of 40 VersaMax-tagged playing cards. Thanks to the superior performance of the tag combined with the improved tag readability of Gen2X, this challenging inventory test took just over a second with zero missed tags.

In another test with 300 densely packed, individually labeled handkerchiefs placed on a metal base plate – a common source of RF interference – all 300 tags were successfully read in just 2.9 seconds. That fast inventory time was achieved even though the tags were boxed closely together, and face-to-face.

VersaMax not only excels in reading high-volume, densely packed items, but also demonstrates robust performance across different material types. It adapts seamlessly to materials like fabric, plastic, and wood. Even in highly challenging scenarios near metal or liquids, it maintains a significantly higher accuracy rate.

Impinj: Tell us more about VersaNano. How much smaller is it than VersaMini, and what sorts of use cases does it enable at that size?

Ren: The VersaNano label measures just 25mm x 15mm, making it 10mm shorter than the VersaMini, and truly achieves our goal of “Tagging Anything.” Historically, on items such as lipstick, mascara, slender stationery, or micro-accessories, mini-sized tags often exceeded the available tagging area or affected the product’s aesthetics.

By combining an ultra-compact form factor with the excellent RF performance delivered by our Trim-Tolerant Technology and Impinj’s Gen2X, VersaNano offers a unique competitive edge in small-item retail, cosmetics, and other scenarios requiring miniature RFID tags.

Impinj: We understand Xindeco’s tags deliver superior performance with health and beauty items and jewelry compared with other small tags. Tell us more.

Ren: Enhancing antenna gain within the strict size constraints of small form factor tags is a major technical challenge. Xindeco IoT’s proprietary Trim-Tolerant Technology is one of our key miniaturization innovations. This technology maximizes antenna gain within a fixed footprint, ensuring our products deliver superior RF performance compared to other small tags.

As one example, even when VersaMini is only 3mm from a large metal surface, it maintains a read range of over 1.5 meters, delivering more than 50% better performance than standard tags. Our new antenna designs address the impact of metal on tag performance in jewelry applications, reducing read performance degradation typically caused by proximity to metal ornaments. These design innovations allow our tags to provide better performance for our customers.

Impinj: The small size of VersaMini — just 33mm x 13mm — makes the tag a perfect fit for many of MINISO’s tiniest items. How is their deployment going?

Ren: Following a successful initial rollout in China, MINISO is now expanding VersaMini deployments into Europe, beginning with Germany and Austria. MINISO is using the tags across a broad range of small retail items, including cosmetics, accessories, and other compact merchandise where traditional RFID tags can be difficult to deploy.

We are seeing even better results since we turned on Gen2X support in VersaMini. As Gen2X is supported by a wide variety of readers, including over 50 production E-Family-based readers and modules, we have seen strong performance in real-world store environments, particularly around inventory visibility and reliable readability for densely packed, small-form-factor products.

MINISO’s successful rollout underscores growing enterprise demand for smaller, higher-performance RFID tags that can support a wider range of retail items.

Impinj: All three of your Versa family tags support Gen2X. What sorts of improvements have you seen in tag performance when using Gen2X?

Ren: One of the primary reasons we chose Impinj M830 is that Gen2X brings significant technical advantages to our products, especially with smaller tags and more challenging use cases.

Health and beauty (H&B) products are traditionally hard-to-read, as they are small, often contain liquid, and are sensitive to tag placement. When we tested VersaMini with around 800 H&B products on retail shelves, Gen2X increased the number of items inventoried in 10 seconds at a 2-meter read range by over 70% compared with Gen2.

In a supply chain shipment verification test with around 225 H&B products tightly packed in a box, Gen2X improved verification accuracy to 98.6% versus 96.8% with Gen2. These types of Gen2X improvements will help VersaMini unlock new use cases for RFID inventory management of health and beauty products in retail stores and throughout the supply chain.

Impinj: Tell us about any other enterprises that have unlocked new use cases with your Gen2X-enabled Versa tags.

Ren: We’re already seeing the VersaTrack series offering exceptional read rates across sectors such as food and beverage, cosmetics, and consumer electronics. Its superior adaptability to high-dielectric materials, liquids, and metallic environments allows it to maintain reliable performance where traditional tags often fail.

Our global clients are achieving unparalleled performance using Versa tags powered by Impinj M800 endpoint ICs and Gen2X. Across global retail and supply chain environments, we are seeing growing demand for RFID solutions capable of supporting smaller, more difficult-to-tag products, especially in categories such as cosmetics, health and beauty, accessories, pharmaceuticals, and general retail merchandise.

Gen2X-enabled Versa tags are helping enterprise customers improve inventory accuracy, shipment verification, and operational visibility across historically challenging product categories and environments. We continue to see strong interest from enterprises looking to extend RFID beyond traditional apparel use cases into a broader range of retail and supply chain applications.