How RFID maintained retail business continuity during the epidemic

RFID retail software company Detego has launched a new solution to support retailers and help them maintain business continuity during the continuous impact of COVID-19. As e-commerce becomes the main sales channel of major brands, retailers using RFID technology can use this solution to adapt to the growing DC (distribution center) and DTC marketing (direct consumer-oriented marketing model). pressure. With this technology, retailers will be able to use efficient RFID processes to greatly increase the speed of returning goods directly from consumers to the distribution center.

Detego, who has collaborated with several major fashion retail brands, said the plan was designed to adapt to growing demand by improving e-commerce operations and return processes, thereby reducing some of the pressure on retailers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the decline in retailer sales and the serious impact of physical store closures and social isolation measures, online shopping is undergoing a major shift.

Detego reports that although most retailers operate e-commerce businesses simultaneously with physical stores, this usually accounts for only 10% -15% of their overall retail sales. For omnichannel retailers, e-commerce will become the main sales channel in the foreseeable future. There is already early evidence. According to preliminary data from Quantum Metric, the average weekly revenue growth rate of e-commerce related to physical retailers has reached 52%.

Detego pointed out that this sudden shift to e-commerce will pose a major challenge to many retail distribution centers, because the supply chain and operating systems may become chaotic or collapse under increasing pressure. The main challenge brought by the growth of online sales is the consequent increase in returns. If consumers only refund 10% of the products they bought in the store, their refund rate for online purchases will be as high as 50%. The main problem faced by retailers in terms of production capacity will be the growth rate of online orders, and it is likely that bottlenecks and shortages will occur during the return process.

The new return model is part of Detego's end-to-end RFID platform. It aims to strengthen the function of the distribution center by using fast and efficient RFID reading cartons or boxes to check the target list based on the items returned by consumers. Detego reports that this solution supports software as a service (SaaS) and can be integrated with all standard RFID hardware and warehouse management systems (WMS) to calculate, verify, display, track and manage from DC or DTC to consumers Or wholesaler's inventory, and handle all returned goods returned to DC or DTC. The value-added features of the program will enable retailers to use quality grading systems and display product images to more effectively identify and classify externally returned products.

Detego said that RFID-enabled retailers can use the solution to predict returns and shipments to achieve greater order flexibility and increase processing time by 90%. The company pointed out that this not only prevents bottlenecks in the supply chain due to unprocessed returns, but also ensures that inventory is provided as soon as possible after the return, thus avoiding out-of-stock situations in online stores. This is in addition to the 100% shipping accuracy provided by RFID tags and the ability to use unique digital identities to verify the legality of returns.