In a world of ongoing changes, uncertainties are unavoidable. From global pandemics and inflation to conflicts like the war in Ukraine and crises such as the Red Sea situation. These events greatly affect the retail industry. In this blog post, we will explore the potential of RFID to create resilient supply chains amid times of uncertainties for future-proof retailing.

How uncertainties affect retailers

Retailers are among the first ones to suffer when disasters or crises occur. Actually, they usually get hit twice. First, the direct hit, when the event actually damages their ability to operate smoothly. For example, when the Covid-19 outbreak took place, businesses couldn’t serve customers and had to shut down due to lockdowns. Also, the Chinese port closures prevented the arrival of goods.

Second, in times of uncertainties such as infletions, and increases in living costs, customers simply buy less. This is especially true for luxury and non-necessary goods and services. For example, if Europe’s energy bills spiked because of the Russia - Ukraine war, the people have less money to spend and they are likely to decrease their spending.

How RFID helps resilient retail supply chains

Reduction of unnecessary costs

Every business has its pain points when it comes to operational efficiency. Whether it's time-consuming tasks that take too long or messy flow that requires too many employees to conduct, this all translates into money.

RFID is a huge help when it comes to finding ways to reduce operational costs. It automates time-consuming tasks such as inventory counts, shipment validation, checkouts, item searching, and more. For example, if previously needed a few hours with dozens of employees to conduct one cycle count, now store employees can count the store weekly in one hour with one or two employees.

Loss prevention

Shrinkage, theft, loss, and spoilage, are huge contributors to retail loss. Even if you think that your shrinkage rate is on very tiny percentage, those numbers add on and when translated to costs it can be millions and billions.

Thankfully, shrinkage is very easy to solve with RFID, In fact, the shrinkage reduction is one of the very first results you will see after deploying RFID. The reason is that RFID allows you to track an item level and to count it very frequently resulting in keeping in close touch with the stock.

In addition, RFID  is also frequently used in combination with RFID-enabled POS and security gates to prevent unpaid items from leaving the store.

Flexibility

With RFID, retailers can maintain a tight connection with their products, monitor their movements, and spot trends. This real-time tracking gives businesses the power to respond promptly, boosting sales or cutting losses.

For instance, if there's a sudden spike in demand for a particular item, management can spot the trend quickly and order more stock. Similarly, if an item isn't selling well in one location but is flying off the shelves in others, they can swiftly adjust stock allocations.

Data backed decision making

Moreover, RFID eliminates blind spots in retail, offering a clear view of the business and its stock. This equips decision-makers with dependable data to support their choices. They no longer have to rely on guesswork about inventory, but can instead make more accurate forecasts and prepare accordingly.

Increased sales with better availability and service

Finally, RFID helps retailers win the competition through unmatched customer experience. It ensures full stock availability, avoiding customer disappointment, provides complete online stock transparency, and frees up employees to deliver optimal service.

Using RFID, employees can find every item in a store within a minute, resulting in no loss of sales.

Select the RFID solution that is right for your business

After deciding to move forward to RFID efficiency, the second important thing is to make sure you choose the right solution that fits your business’s needs. As every business operates differently, with its own systems and processes, it’s crucial to find an RFID solution that creates a tailor-made solution to meet your goals. This way you can ensure you’re not buying services or hardware you don’t need but pay only for what you use.

At Chainlane, we build an end-to-end solution to fit your size, processes, needs, and targets. In addition, we integrate with your existing platform so you don’t need to worry. Moreover, we can accommodate any additional technologies you need, such as BLE, NFC, QR codes, etc.

Get in touch with our retail professional today to learn how you can resilient your supply chain!

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