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Here is a quick checklist of several benefits that can be achieved with RFID solutions:
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Reduce warehouse and distribution labor costs --
Replace the point and read labor-intensive operation of
tracking pallets, cases, cartons and individual products
with sensors that can track these items anywhere in the
facility with pin-point accuracy. This can reduce the high
labor costs and service fees of regular stock management and
store shelf inventory.
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Reduce point-of-sale labor costs -- With
RFID-enabled products, checkout can be completed with a
quick scan of all items in cart helping to reduce
point-of-sale labor costs. The current scan-it-yourself
component of self-service checkout can be improved, helping
to improve adoption, reduce self-service checkout times and
reduce fraud.
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Reduce inventory -- Inventory accuracy is
important to helping eliminate excess/missing inventory,
losses and write downs. With RFID, inventory errors can be
reduced so that the company can be assured that the
inventory indicated is the actual inventory available.
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Improve forecasting and planning -- Visibility
improvements throughout the supply-chain can help to improve
the forecasting capabilities to help better track where
inventory is and what is happening to it throughout the
supply chain.
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Reduce theft -- Losses due to theft are estimated
to cost retailers over $30 billion per year and are
estimated conservatively at 1.5% of overall sales. With
RFID, products can be tracked through the supply chain to
pinpoint where a product is and eliminate inventory errors
that can cause shipments to go missing, or to better find
where and when in the process the product was lost. Within
the retail store, RFID can and has been successfully
deployed, particularly on higher margin items, to help
prevent theft.
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Reduce out-of stock conditions -- When an item is
out of stock the customer is often left disappointed, either
avoiding the purchase altogether -- common in grocery stores
where as much as 4% of their revenue is lost each year due
to out-of-stock conditions -- or worse, the customer moves
on to a competitor in order to source the product.
Eliminating out-of-stock conditions via better RFID product
tracking and inventory visibility and forecasting, such as
alerting the store staff immediately when the last item
leaves the shelf, can have an immediate top-line revenue
impact and have residual effects by improving customer
service and satisfaction.
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Improve customer experience -- With RFID, items
in a cart can be tracked and if a high-tech cart or kiosks
are part of the shopping experience, offers can be made
automatically related to the items -- such as dynamic
up-sell/cross-sell of useful or necessary accessories.
White Paper on RFID
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