The retail world has changed dramatically in the last five years—and never more than this past year, when the pandemic forced the industry to transform its service delivery.
Barcoding’s August Huddle, “Your 2022 Digital Transformation with RAIN RFID,” we talked about how RAIN RFID (Passive Ultra-High Frequency [UHF] RFID technology) enabled much-needed agility and accuracy—and how it will continue to benefit retailers in the future.
What? You couldn’t join us? No worries! Here’s a recap and, if you want to watch the Huddle, there’s a link to the video recording below.
OUR SPEAKERS
- Jody Costa, VP of Marketing & Strategic Partnerships at Barcoding
- Ashley Burkle, Retail Solutions at Impinj
- Jean-Pierre Joassin, IoT/RFID Enterprise Solutions Engineering Manager at Barcoding
- Steven Schauer, IoT System Engineer at Barcoding
Our fearless Huddle leader, Jody Costa, asked the experts from Barcoding and Impinj, a manufacturer of innovative radio-frequency identification devices and software, several timely questions about RFID and retail. Here’s what we learned:
How are some ways RFID has been adopted in retail over the past two years, and how it has enabled retailers to fulfill omnichannel requests?
- Retailers had a real sink-or-swim moment in 2020. Almost overnight, they had to demonstrate flexibility to fulfill in a new world where people are almost exclusively ordering online and selecting from one of many delivery options. This required agility, visibility, and accuracy in the supply chain
- They quickly learned whether or not their platforms/backend systems were capable of omnichannel fulfillment, whether they could pick & pack efficiently, and whether or not they could serve customers the way they wanted to be served (and with the speed they demanded). For retailers, it all came down to this question: “Do I know what I have, and where it is?”
- RFID enabled remarkable visibility and made it possible for retailers to confidently expose their available inventory online and promise delivery. No longer will an average 65% inventory accuracy be enough...living in an omnichannel world requires far higher inventory accuracy
- Going forward, we’ll only see more need for visibility, because buying patterns are not likely to change. An investment in digital transformation is mandatory...it’s no longer “on the horizon.” It’s here, and RFID technology is going to help drive retailer success in this new world
- RAIN RFID has a number of applications in retail: loss prevention, merchandising, and buying, to name a few. Other industries, such as grocery, are using it in self-checkout, for traceability, to monitor expiration dates, and more. There are so many use cases, varying by the vertical in which they’re applied
How do you work with retailers to make sense of their data?
- The data stored and gathered with RFID tags and scanners is, by itself, relatively useless. For it to help you make sound business decisions, you must evaluate it. But how?
- Partners like Barcoding help retailers and others first understand what their goals are, then identify and analyze the metrics that will help them track success. Do you want to eliminate markdowns? Reduce loss? Minimize inventory on hand? Knowing what an organization wants to prioritize helps us determine the right data to capture and evaluate
- The first step in making RFID work in your supply chain is to develop a tagging strategy. This is where, together, we’ll identify use cases for today and for the future
We love this quote: “The more RFID use cases you adopt, the more ROI you see.”
The Last Question: What will we be using RFID for in the future?
- We’ll see RFID tags being embedded into more and more products, making the supply chain even more accurate
- We’ll have the capability to affix RFID tags to our own belongings to help track their location and condition
- We’ll see RFID tags on things like televisions; when a repair person comes to your home, they’ll get all the information they need about the unit from an RFID tag
- We’ll see readers being put in smartphones so people can scan items themselves!
“Once an item is tagged, it’s basically a smart device. You can read it as many times as needed at as many points throughout the supply chain as you want.”
THANK YOU!
Thank you, panel, for your insights, and thanks to everyone who joined us. One thing we talked about toward the end of the Huddle bears repeating: Partners like Barcoding and Impinj are here to help you answer the “why” of RFID, to help you develop the most practical tech strategy for your organization, and to identify the right people and processes. Don’t embark on this journey alone; you need a strong ecosystem of partners, and Barcoding and something would love to be part of it.
Click the link below to get the conversation started!
Oh, and watch for the details about our next Huddle; in the meantime, watch the recording to learn more!