More and more retailers are implementing new technologies to improve their processes and finding new and innovative applications of existing technologies to optimize their daily operations. RFID technology is rapidly gaining adoption within retail and it is significantly improving inventory management. Retailers are now looking at additional ways to leverage the investment they put into RFID, once the initial investment and returns have been realized. As a result, retailers are now commonly placing focus on the changing process of customer engagement at Point of Sale (POS) moving to automated and human-free checkout.
Enhanced Check-out Solutions
Retailers are adopting RFID at Point of Sale for a variety of reasons. In particular, the technology has the ability to speed up the check out process and can be part of a ‘technology rebrand’ effort for retailers whilst acting as a loss prevention tool by reducing human factor-based errors at checkout.
SML has deployed RFID POS systems to over 250 stores for one retailer alone and the response has been very positive due to the accuracy, speed of checkout and the technology experience that the customer finds during the POS process.
Reduced Shrink and Loss Prevention
With RFID, retailers are able to carry out a stock count of their stores once a week in an hour or so with a few handhelds at 98% accuracy. An enhanced view of inventory naturally leads to a reduction in shrink which is often the result of theft or items lost throughout the supply chain. On average, shrink percentage within retail is around 2% of sales which creates significant cost implications to retailers.
However, RFID can be utilized to prevent shrink through all aspects of the supply chain and can identify whether an item went missing in transit from the distribution center.
Not only does shrink have large cost implications, it also means that a retailer’s view of inventory is already inaccurate which can lead to missed sales opportunities. RFID technology is able to reduce shrink by up to 50%, meaning items are more readily available for purchase and the customer experience isn’t hindered by not having the correct items in store.
If you’re interested in hearing more about retailers using RFID to optimize customer experience at POS level, download our whitepaper here.