Keeping Count

Though the benefits of RFID are plentiful — including inventory record accuracy, display compliance, and futuristic uses of technology to improve the customer experience — Billings said retailers must ask the question: Is RFID the right fit for the company?

Metals and liquids still pose a challenge for RFID tags and while there are workarounds, this is still something to consider.

So, what justifies a ROI for RFID? Is it the checkout experience? Auto replenishment from back to front? Overall customer experience?

Billings recognized that while retailers know their business, some of these benefits can be hard to quantify. In a breakdown of costs, Billings identified $.04–.08 per tag, and “the further up the supply chain you tag, the cheaper it is.”

Investors also need to consider hardware maintenance as well as ongoing software licenses and the cost per device. Perhaps the hardest thing for retailers are the process changes, like barcodes.

With RFID auditing 100% of the items shipped with a full system integration, it’s no wonder that RFID increases sales between 4% and 8%. Using this real-time data is vital in moving forward, according to Billings.

As such, Billings had a thrilling announcement: “We are excited about our partnership with Frequentiel, and we are looking forward to helping retailers with their RFID needs.”

Datascan and Frequentiel, Europe’s premier RFID company, can help retailers along the RFID path, help with ROI calculations, and more. Find more information about RFID on Datascan’s website or connect with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.

Stores often wonder: Why do shoppers leave without a purchase? According to Billings, there are four main reasons:

1. Items are out of stock.

2. There’s no one to help.

3. It takes too much time to finalize the shop.

4. It’s too impersonal of an experience.

The solution? RFID. RFID has been shown to improve the out-of-stock problem because it provides real-time stock levels, which is crucial to selling items at the omnichannel level. Additionally, supply management becomes faster with RFID and allows more time for the assistant/employee to help the customer.

Describing use cases, Billings explained how with an RFID loyalty card, a salesperson could gain data on the customer, like purchase history, sizing, and style as soon as they walk in the door.

Billings also described the exciting idea of a smart fitting room retrofitted with RFID technology. “You walk into the fitting room, let’s say the item doesn’t fit…the smart mirrors can show what sizes are available out on the floor,” he explained. “You can click an item and have an employee bring that to you without leaving the room.” Additionally, the room could show different color options on the shopper and accessories that go with the items chosen.

Clearly, this concept would vastly improve the customer experience with its personalization, integration, and efficiency benefits, and Datascan recognizes the exciting new uses of RFID technology.

Find more information about RFID by tuning into the series, visiting Datascan’s website, or connecting with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.

Stores often wonder: Why do shoppers leave without a purchase? According to Billings, there are four main reasons:

1. Items are out of stock.

2. There’s no one to help.

3. It takes too much time to finalize the shop.

4. It’s too impersonal of an experience.

The solution? RFID. RFID has been shown to improve the out-of-stock problem because it provides real-time stock levels, which is crucial to selling items at the omnichannel level. Additionally, supply management becomes faster with RFID and allows more time for the assistant/employee to help the customer.

Describing use cases, Billings explained how with an RFID loyalty card, a salesperson could gain data on the customer, like purchase history, sizing, and style as soon as they walk in the door.

Billings also described the exciting idea of a smart fitting room retrofitted with RFID technology. “You walk into the fitting room, let’s say the item doesn’t fit…the smart mirrors can show what sizes are available out on the floor,” he explained. “You can click an item and have an employee bring that to you without leaving the room.” Additionally, the room could show different color options on the shopper and accessories that go with the items chosen.

Clearly, this concept would vastly improve the customer experience with its personalization, integration, and efficiency benefits, and Datascan recognizes the exciting new uses of RFID technology.

Find more information about RFID by tuning into the series, visiting Datascan’s website, or connecting with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.

Remember the toilet paper scarcity? Yeah. That. What if we told you that could have been avoided or minimized? In the third episode out of this five-part series, Herb Billings, vice president of technology strategy at Datascan, dove into the effects radio frequency identification (RFID) has on the supply chain with host of Herb’s Hot Takes, Tyler Kern.

RFID has been around since WWII and, along with other drivers, provides inventory record accuracy at more affordable rates. Clearly, having this feature during the pandemic toilet paper fiasco would have helped companies prepare for the demand surge and plan accordingly. Because the supply chain is so fragile, it’s obvious that “big changes needed to happen,” according to Billings.

To try to avoid issues, retailers often prepare a safety stock, but this drives costs upward. Additionally, if the retailer did not order appropriately, they may wait extended times due to the backup of the supply chain.

During the pandemic, issues in the supply chain affected different items, such as bikes, fishing equipment, weight training equipment, and yes, toilet paper. But when process can’t meet demand, how does one manage the supply chain?

That’s where RFID steps in. Providing confidence in logs and records, RFID helps retailers remain flexible and confident in their decisions.

RFID can be applied at the point of manufacture and utilized within inbound and outbound audits at the item level. This provides “visibility, transparency and accurate stock levels” which “helps everything run smoother,” according to Billings.

One way Datascan is helping retailers avoid toilet-paper-shortage-like scares is through their partnership with Frequentiel, Europe’s Premier RFID company, and its Octoplus system. Find more information about RFID by tuning into the series, visiting Datascan’s website, or connecting with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.

In the second episode of this five-part series, Datascan’s Vice President of Technology Strategy, Herb Billings, spoke to host of Herb’s Hot Takes, Tyler Kern, about the benefits of using radio frequency identification (RFID).

Billings first discussed the four main use cases of implementing RFID: “It improves inventory record accuracy. It reduces manual labor time around inventory management tasks. You can implement it for anti-theft, and then display compliance — making sure you have one of everything on the floor.”

With the barcode system, most retailers are only checking stock biannually at best, which is becoming a big problem. “If you’re doing barcodes once or twice a year your average inventory record accuracy right before you count is somewhere around 35%,” Billings explained. With unmatched counts, this creates chaos for omnichannel and retailers.

Using RFID can alleviate a lot of that headache by allowing stores to count up to 40 times faster than traditional barcode counting. “That means you can actually count once a week if you like in your stores. If you’re counting once a week, you are going to be maintaining about a 98% or higher inventory record accuracy,” Billings said.

This technology will help ensure replenishment of stock is more efficient and on-time. Additionally, stores could even sell up to the last item while maintaining confidence in records and reducing safety stock. In fact, a study published recently showed a 4–8% increase in sales the more frequent counts are performed.

RFID use also allows users to reduce manual labor time, like using the data captured to analyze which products make it to the dressing room but never see the register.

Clearly, RFID technology has a myriad of uses. Find more information about RFID by tuning into the series, visiting Datascan’s website, or connecting with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.