RFID for retail and commerce

Retail and Supply Chain

Automatization for goods management and costumer care enhancement

The distribution is a fundamental phase for commercial businesses: it determines the success of the management prior to this step. Using RFID technology for retail and supply chain management, both the buyer and the seller can benefit of a large number of advantages. Identification technologies allow to track goods and optimize shipments; a RFID shop could, for instance, eliminate the inventory errors and speed the order processing up, other than controlling in real-time the stockings.

The RFID solution to be realized must answer to this specific question: what problem do I need to solve?

Asset tracking

RFID technology is widely used for asset tracking: simply put, a RFID tag is applied on an asset and then detected with reading devices. Anything can be tagged, and on multiple levels - from the pallet, the box up to the single item.

An amazing feature offered by RFID technology is real-time inventory and warehouse status aknowledgement. Furthermore, any additional costs due to errors, theft and losses are minimized.

One of the most important advantages of RFID technology is the massive reading of tags: in other words, it is possible to read a large amount of RFID tags in a certain area almost instantly; tags do not have to be necessairly on sight, therefore they can applied inside of boxes or packages. EasyRFID developed specific tags for the retail, such as RFID composition label and a customizable label tag.

Reduce delivery time

Unwanted cost reduction is not the only advantage of RFID technology integration in retail. This technology allows for extremely fast goods flow, as it can automate time-requiring operations.

Inventory and stocks are updated real-time, so that costumer orders and supplies can be managed exactly, reducing the risk of out-of-stock, which is a reputation killer.

Many types of devices are used in retail businesses, such as mobile devices – handheld and tablet - and gates, used mostly to manage logistics and goods flow.

Omni-channel sales is even more complex to manage, as some companies manage both online and physical stores separately, each one with its own inventory. With RFID online and physical store inventory match and it is possible to have a clear vision of the warehouse state of art.

Supply-Chain optimization with RFID

RFID is perfect to achieve the highest control over the supply-chain; whith this technology items can be tracked from the production plant all the way to the distribution plant, from the warehouse to the store. With RFID location of the items and goods is updated real-time, and the risk of transport losses is minimized.

Improve the user experience

Being in complete control over the production process and the supply chain improves the value of the item, whose production is free of grey areas. The costumer can trace back every step of the production chain and retreive exact information about the purchased item.

Anyways, there are some features of RFID technology that the costumers can benefit directly from.

For instance, fast check-out stores are characterized by the absence of check-outs; the list of purchased items is done cross-checking visual information and RFID information. Smart-mirrors are a creative and innovative application of RFID; when entering a cabin, the tags on the clothes are scanned, information retreived and the mirror shows possible combinations with other clothes or different color and sizes of the piece. Furthermore, costumer care applies RFID tags to open a direct dialogue with the costumers via the purchased item. In fact, using the tags on the items it is possible to send information, discounts and guarantee its authenticity.