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Retail Intelligent Inventory Solutions: The Advantages of Event-Driven, Item-Level

RFID Inventory Management for Apparel

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The Advantages of Event-Driven, Item-Level Inventory Management for Retail ApparelKeeping track of product inventory is key to success in any industry. However, in the retail market, inventory management brings its own set of special challenges and complications.

Consider the fact that your retail inventory data is continuously impacted by a multitude of “events” that happen every minute of the day:

• New product delivery

• In-store customer purchase

• Online customer order

• Shrink

• Stock audit

• End-of-season clearance

• Customer returns

Traditionally, retailers were limited to the inventory data gathered a couple times per year through stock taking, manually counting every article on the sales floor and in back stock. But as soon as another event occurred, new data was generated and the stock situation had changed.

The Age of Big DataAs computers become more pervasive and sensors are more commonplace in our daily lives, more and more data is generated… about everything, everywhere, all the time. Access to big data and sophisticated analytical software can be a key advantage for any business, allowing in-depth analysis of customer preferences and purchasing behavior for better forecasting and an improved customer experience.

However, if a retailer’s inventory data is less than 80 percent accurate, what good is the hottest analytical software with the latest “eye candy” charts and graphs? It’s like looking at a one-megapixel image on a 96" HD television. Likewise, accurate inventory data is critical to implementing a successful omnichannel strategy as well, which is key to competitive advantage.

Today’s retailers are fortunate to have access to RFID technology, allowing fast, efficient and accurate management of inventory data, while enabling staff to work more efficiently and focus on helping customers rather than chasing down inventory. And because the data is updated in real-time, RFID provides the added bonus of greater visibility into each event, such as identifying the exact cause of shrink to enable timely replacement of the specific item that is missing.

Yet not all RFID solutions are the same.

As new events are created throughout the day–when taking inventory, at point of sale, making a query into inventory levels, etc.–a robust solution is needed to handle and make sense of all the data being generated in various ways from different sources. In fact, with larger retail chains, inventory management can potentially generate tens of thousands of events per hour.

The Clarity™ RFID solution from SML is based on an event-driven architecture (EDA) that easily scales as you expand the use of RFID technology in your chain. This event-driven, software block architecture is ideally suited to the retail business model, providing real-time inventory management and tracking item-level inventory and product sales with precision, driving better insights, analytics and business decisions.

Clarity™ can run on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, which means it is a cost-effective solution that can be deployed quickly with just a few handheld RFID readers and an Internet connection, speeding return on investment with real-time visibility. This cloud-based software as a service (SAAS) platform is capable of growing with a retailer’s needs from one store to 100+.

Retail Big Data Advantages:• Optimize merchandising strategy• More effective inventory utilization• More focus on Customers• Predict product trends• Analyze effectiveness of

promotions

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Turn Up the VolumeThe ability to collect and analyze data at point of sale and on the sales floor opens up a wealth of opportunities for today’s retailers. And the more data that can be processed in a given period of time, the greater the business insight that can be achieved. With the recent growth of omnichannel, as the lines between in-store and online continue to blur, the amount of data that can be generated in retail is staggering.

Due to the scalable and highly reliable nature of the Clarity™ EDA, it can accommodate hundreds of million inventory events in minutes. The Clarity™ software is built to scale in order to support this large number of events… whether it’s Black Friday, or just a regular weekly stock count conducted simultaneously across multiple store locations. The Clarity™ EDA lends itself to that scalability, delivering processing capability that can support the most demanding retail deployments.

Moreover, the cloud-based nature of the solution allows this data to be accessed from nearly any Bluetooth-enabled device that is compatible with iOS, Android and Windows. This “bring your own device” (BYOD) capability not only saves money on equipment, but also limits the need for additional training and speeds return on investment.

Seamless OmnichannelFundamentally, omnichannel is all about delivering value to the customer through whichever channel they prefer to order and receive goods. Real-time visibility into inventory enabled by the Clarity™ RFID solution means that a retailer knows what is available and where it is located at all times, allowing confirmation that the online order promised for pickup at a store is actually available at that store.

Without inventory accuracy, omnichannel is a promise that can’t be followed through, potentially damaging customer satisfaction and reputation. Savvy retailers realize the importance of this reality, and they are actively implementing systems that enable a “one-inventory” model, replacing segmented inventory pools with a single, accurate picture of inventory across the enterprise.

True real-time visibility into this converged inventory allows staff on the floor to make a query into inventory on an item-by-item basis to find out how much to stock the shelf, or where products are located, in order to deliver on the omnichannel promise of customer value. This capability for more accurate stocking helps reduce costs of inventory handling by reducing leftover stock at the end of season, thereby increasing profits.

An added bonus of the Clarity™ solution is the ability to interface with the retailer’s ecommerce software to generate a re-order when an item quantity is too low, avoiding out-of-stocks and missed sales on the most popular items.

POSPLM SCM

RMSOMS

Cloud or Server-hosted

HandheldReaders

Ceiling Readers

Transition and Exit Portals

POSReader

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The Clarity™ Event-Driven Architecture is a key component to helping some of the world’s leading retailers making RFID-based inventory management simple and straightforward. Customers using the Clarity™ solution have seen significant advantages, including:

• Increased utilization of staff to serve customers

• Decreased out-of-stocks in the store by over 50%

• Eliminated the costs of third-party audits

• Reduced inventory levels in the supply chain and stores by >10%

• Enabled effective omnichannel fulfillment with over 98% inventory accuracy.

How does your retail inventory strategy stack up against your other IT priorities?

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About SML As the leading full-service RFID solution provider, SML is a trusted partner to the world’s largest retailers and

top fashion brands, delivering proven results and rapid ROI for our customers. SML offers a broad spectrum of

certified RFID-enabled labels, tags, stickers and inlays from the largest global network of source-tagging service

bureaus. SML Intelligent Inventory Solution’s Clarity™ enterprise-class platform has best-in-class features and

functionality for RFID deployment in-store and throughout the retail supply chain.

SML has successfully delivered RFID to many of the world’s most successful retailers. With a presence in over 30

countries, unparalleled deployment expertise and highly trained support personnel, SML is the leading technology

provider for the new era in retailing, Retail 3.0. Visit the SML website at www.sml-rfid.com.

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SML RFID @SMLRFID info@SML-RFID.comwww.sml-rfid.com

SML RFID LEADS THE NEW ERA IN RETAILING