With online shopping expected to reach an all-time high in 2020 and curbside pickup already increasing by more than 208% due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, it’s safe to assume that contactless shopping trends will continue to grow.
Key areas to address when managing inventory
That’s why retailers are continually finding ways to make shopping as convenient and painless as possible. This often involves exploring the latest back-end technologies in order to anticipate inventory needs and set a new bar for customer satisfaction.
Such businesses are looking toward Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, including RAIN RFID, to boost both in-store and warehouse employees’ efficiency in managing, prioritizing and resolving inventory issues. IoT solutions also allow retailers to relate data about customer trends using real-time data and correlate that behavior with the inventory to meet consumer demand.
RAIN RFID is a wireless IoT technology that uniquely identifies any item, including apparel, jewelry, boxes and pallets and connects that item to the Internet. RAIN RFID enables itemized data collection that provides organizations with the visibility needed to know that they have exactly the right items, in the right quantities, at the right locations, at the right time. During the pandemic, RAIN RFID solutions have helped retailers and manufacturers manage and track the flow of their inventory, adapt to changes in demand and navigate global supply chain disruptions.
Item connectivity improves inventory visibility
When all retail inventory is connected to the Internet, retailers gain tremendous visibility into the movement of goods within their supply chains. This visibility reveals the source of supply disruptions, identifies capacity constraints (whether human or machine) and discovers other factors undermining the productivity and effectiveness of the entire system.
With improved visibility, a retailer can gain an improved understanding of its overall operation and maintain agility during times of uneven demand. By laying a foundation today for an IoT solution, retailers will reap the benefits for the long-term. Technology advancements like RAIN RFID can help businesses analyze, optimize and virtualize their operations for a system that drives efficiency, increases profit and delights customers.
