How Data and RFID are driving retail performance

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology has been used in retail for many years.

RFID offers a number of advantages in terms of stock management and item tracking, as well as improving the customer experience.

It goes far beyond maintaining inventory to avoid stock-outs and optimise supply management.

RFID technology is also being used to combat fraud. At some point, we’ve all ‘paged’ through a shop’s gantry on our way out. The RFID tag had been forgotten to be removed.

RFID can also create an interactive and personalised shopping experience by making information or promotions available.

But today RFID is also boosting in-store performance for sales staff. Not only can they optimise product location, they can also manage product availability in real time. This technology is becoming a sales assistant’s best friend during sales periods!

It is on this purposes that the company Retail Reload offers an effective performance with its technology, which has won over LACOSTE and its Flagship shop on the Champs-Elysées.

Luxury and Retail or the Omnichannel Digital Conversion Challenge

Today’s customers are increasingly connected, and very often they can connect from the shop to the online site and see reviews, availability and prices in real time.

If physical points of sale are to succeed in the future, they will have to undergo an essential omnichannel digital transformation. RFID and the technology proposed by Retail Reload provide reliable, up-to-date data to feed the ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and others OMS (Order Management System).

More than ever, reliable data that is as up to date as possible is defined as high added value in a sales tunnel.

The “Pain Point” – How to find out in real time where the product is located

The sinews of war lie in the speed with which multi-device information can be obtained at exactly the right moment.

Retail Reload’s solution exploits the ability of RFID to identify and track each product in real time. At every stage in its life, from manufacture to sale, the user, sales assistant, shop manager or shop assistant can find out Where is the product? is it available? is it reserved? or who is handling it or has handled it (in-store sales assistant).

From now on, every product that passes through the retailer’s entire organisation, from manufacture to sale, can be identified.

« The product can tell its story »

Each time the RFID tag is read, a relevant touchpoint on performance is displayed.

Data collection takes place at 3 levels in the life of a product.

Production in every major brand, such as Luxury Goods or Premium ready-to-wear, requires RFID management.

Indeed, the choice of when to integrate RFID tags must be aligned with the company’s specific objectives in terms of traceability, stock management and operational efficiency.

For example :

• During manufacture, traceability from the very first stages of production. RFID tags can be integrated right from the start of the manufacturing process for garment components such as labels, zips or buttons. This avoids the notorious : “T’as Pas dit ZIP! “ most relevant for french people !
• During the final assembly of the garment, for some manufacturers
• After the garment has been produced. During shipping or preparation for distribution. This minimises potential interference with the manufacturing and assembly processes.
• Packaging is also a choice where an RFID tag can be added to each garment..

Today, however, it is preferable to opt for a complete approach, integrating RFID tags to track everything from the manufacture of components to the dispatch of the product, right through to in-store handling.

At this last stage, the Retail Reload solution provides an effective response, and the many advantages it offers are clear. check out the Use case on this link

Each time RFID is read, the answers to these questions are possible:

• Where is the product?
• What is its availability for sale?
• Who handled it?
• When was it handled?
• Why was it handled?
• Where was it handled?
• With which identifier?
• With which other products?

The data is also shared with the IS (Information Systems) of the group’s retailers.

DATA is the goldmine

Anything that can be measured can be improved. These are the words that Yves Curtat, the founder of Retail Reload, likes to use in his sales pitch.

The ability to track individual products brings tangible performance in terms of sales. Retail Reload has invested a lot of money in making this RFID easy to use and exploit for performance and ROI (Return On Investment).

Each product that passes through the shop’s organisation will express its history in data, at every stage. It can thus reveal any malfunctions such as :

– Discrepancies due to RFID reading errors that can be corrected
– Employee or supplier errors

and, of course, limiting fraud and items in the bin after fitting in the cabin.

Sébastien Fayet, CEO of Lacoste France, had this to say after integrating the Retail Reload solution in the Champs-Elysées shop:

“We have improved performance at every stage. Not only are our teams more efficient, because they are connected to the stock live, but we can also monitor their sessions action by action. In this way, we can continuously detect individual training needs and any sticking points in our processes.

This digitisation of the sales ceremony using RFID has enabled us to increase the transfo rate by 35%.

Etam, which also uses this solution, has a profitable omnichannel conversion with an increased margin rate.

Today, Retail Reload is in the process of conquering new markets in France and abroad, and GOWeeZ is assisting its director with the company’s strategic development.

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