Retailers embrace RFID

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• Date: 2018-09-05
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About a decade ago, I visited a walmart store with an executive from walmart's RFID division.He explained to me at the time how walmart could use RFID to improve its replenishment process.At the time, I asked him if wal-mart had considered using RFID in clothing (which is rf-friendly and often out of stock).

 

Walmart doesn't plan to use RFID on a specific category first, the executive said, preferring to use it on all items.Given the extra cost of labelling and the difficulty of promotion, this particular method of trial use made some sense at the time.But now, for all retailers around the world, RFID technology is undoubtedly a good tool for composite inventory management.

 

What is compound inventory?Product categories that look the same but are actually different.Clothing is the most typical of them.A retail store may sell 10 different colors and 6 different sizes of shirts, and the store needs to create 60 different stock units (skus) for a shirt.It is difficult to make sure that shirts of every size and color are in stock.The task becomes more difficult or even impossible when the store has dozens of styles.

 

Retailers find that using a handheld RFID reader to quickly stock marked items, they can know the exact number of items on the shelves and thus reduce shortages and increase sales.In some cases, RFID is the biggest problem.This may sound silly, but listen to this story first.

 

A few years ago, a well-known sneaker company approached me and told me about a pilot project in a store in Amsterdam.He says in-store sales are up 20%.That's a good answer.But he replied, "no, it's a disaster!"

 

Why is a 20% increase in sales a disaster?"When I reported this to my supervisor, they didn't believe it was true," he explained.They scoffed, "if sales go up by 30%, you'll get the money to continue the project."

 

Now, no one will continue to laugh.RFID technology has been used by many large retailers including Bloomingdale, macy's, cole, marks & spencer, target, tesco and Zara.

 

The adoption rate of RFID technology will continue to increase and gradually spread.Jewelry stores, sporting goods retailers and other industries with complex memory will then use the technology.