Printed and chipless RFID market seen topping $21B by 2030

The Business Research Company says the printed and chipless RFID market will exceed $21 billion by 2030, driven by lower-cost tags, printed electronics and wider use in retail, logistics and healthcare. Avery Dennison led 2025 sales with 7% share, while North America is projected to remain the largest regional market.

Why it matters: - The market is growing because companies want cheaper item-level tracking without silicon chips. - The technology is gaining traction in retail, logistics, healthcare and packaging, where cost and scalability matter. - The forecast points to faster adoption of smart labels, anti-counterfeiting tools and IoT-linked supply chains.

What happened: - The Business Research Company said the printed and chipless radio frequency identification market will top $21 billion by 2030. - The market is forecast to grow at a 21% compound annual growth rate through 2030. - Avery Dennison Corporation led global sales in 2025 with a 7% market share. - TOPPAN Holdings Inc. also held a 7% share in 2025. - Beontag held 6% of the market in 2025. - The leading 10 companies accounted for 22% of total revenues in 2025.

The details: - The market includes ink stripes, radar arrays, thin film transistor circuits, surface acoustic wave technologies and other variants. - Ink stripes are expected to be the largest segment by 2030, at 29% of the market or $6 billion. - North America is projected to remain the largest regional market by 2030, reaching about $8 billion from $3 billion in 2025. - The United States is projected to be the largest single-country market in 2030, at $7 billion, up from $2 billion in 2025. - The report says printed and chipless RFID will make up about 3% of the broader Power Generation, Transmission and Control Equipment market by 2030. - The market will represent nearly 0.4% of the Electrical and Electronics industry by 2030. - The report also lists the market as moderately fragmented. - Entry requires overcoming technical and manufacturing challenges, including reliable identification, cost-efficient production and digital platform integration. - The report identifies laser-induced carbon-based conductive circuit technology as a major sustainability advance. - Pulpatronics Limited introduced chipless, metal-free RFID tags made from paper in June 2024 using laser-induced conductive circuits.

Between the lines: - The market is being shaped less by one dominant platform and more by a mix of materials innovation, manufacturing scale and sector-specific use cases. - Sustainability is becoming a competitive feature, not just a technical one, as buyers look for lower-cost and lower-waste tags. - The concentration data suggests room for both incumbents and niche technology providers to compete. - The report’s share breakdown also shows that leadership is spread across several companies rather than concentrated in one supplier.

What's next: - The Business Research Company expects demand to keep rising as printed electronics improve and more supply chains adopt automation. - The report says regional expansion will continue, with North America retaining the lead through 2030. - Continued gains are expected in smart packaging, connected labeling, inventory tracking and authentication use cases. - The company also says its 2026 reports now include market attractiveness scoring, TAM analysis, company scoring matrices, forecasting dashboards and trend graphics.

The bottom line: - Printed and chipless RFID is moving from a niche identification tool toward a mainstream tracking technology, with low-cost, flexible and sustainable tags driving the next wave of growth. - Request a free sample of the report - Read the full report