RFID’s Transformational Impact on Inventory Management and Consumer Experience

Inventory management is now easier than ever due to a packaging technology that improves the customer experience: radio frequency identification (RFID). This approach works by including a sticker on items that contains a microchip and antenna that transmits logistics information to receivers.

Since this innovative technology constitutes a powerful competitive edge, retailers of all kinds should consider adopting RFID packaging and systems.

Streamlining Inventory Management With Real-Time Precision

The first advantage RFID offers is real-time inventory management. To take inventory with RFID, an employee needs only to walk through the general area with a handheld device. Manual scanning isn't necessary, as receivers only need to be in the vicinity of the transmitter to read its information. They can also read many transmitters simultaneously.

No matter where a box or product is located in a stack or pallet, it's able to be scanned. Therefore, it doesn’t need to be unpacked or repositioned to be inventoried accurately. Employees don’t need to take stacks down and restack them just to scan them.

Taking inventory is not only faster and easier with RFID but also more accurate. Since less human labor is required, less human error transpires. No matter what unexpected developments might take place, retailers always know exactly what they have on hand and where it’s located.

In addition, RFID harvests data that empowers retailers to predict demand and determine when to reorder certain items, enabling them to understand patterns of consumer behavior and automatically change products’ prices based on relevant criteria like spiking demand or dwindling supplies. Since these systems are electronic, no manual retagging of items is necessary to affect price changes.

Moreover, RFID enables real-time transparency throughout the entire supply chain.

Facilitating Global Supply Chain Transparency and Efficiency

In my experience, when retailers start requiring RFID on their shipments, manufacturers and distributors soon embrace the technology as well. That’s because RFID not only takes fast, accurate inventories in stockrooms and storage facilities but also in warehouses, factories, shipping containers, tractor-trailers, and train cars. When shipments are in transit, retailers and their partners can follow their progress every step of the way.

This live view allows retailers to plan better and deliver a data trail about the sourcing of products and raw materials. Offering customers this provenance can prove legality and ethicality, which boosts their trust and loyalty — but that’s not all RFID can do.

Enhancing Customer Experience Through Faster Checkouts

Retailers don’t need a study to tell them that customers don’t like waiting in lines. These studies have been done, however, and they show that delayed checkouts can have significant negative consequences for stores. Indeed, 77 percent of respondents reported being less likely to return to a store where they confronted a long line in the past.

Faster checkouts mean happier customers, and that’s exactly what RFID enables. When packaging includes these tags, consumers no longer need to unload their cart onto a conveyor belt and scan their items manually. Instead, the receiver senses the content of their cart and automatically produces an accurate itemized list, as well as the total price, in a literal heartbeat. As a result, lines can move as quickly as customers can pay for their purchases.

Seize the Competitive Advantages of RFID

A growing number of retailers have implemented RFID in their operations and throughout their supply chains. Staying current by adopting this technology will be important for retailers of all sizes since its benefits offer substantial competitive advantages.

Joseph Schlossberg is a vice president of global sales at Sourcing Solutions International, a one-of-a-kind supplier that manufactures both hangers and packaging for the apparel/retail industry.