18-04-06 11:26
Age: 7 yrs

BY: CHAPPELL, GAVIN; DURDAN, DAVID; GILBERT, GREG; GINSBURG, LYLE; SMITH, JEFF; TOBOLSKI, JOSEPH

In the not-too-distant future, Auto-ID technology will help bring out the best aspects of the shopping experience and greatly diminish the things that customers don’t like about shopping – resulting in more satisfied customers and ultimately, better bottom-line results. Auto-ID technology will help free up valuable labor from in-store receiving, stocking, taking inventory and checkout for more direct customer support, as well as reduce product shrink and out-of-stocks. Additionally, retailers that face product obsolescence or spoilage will have better data to manage products nearing the end of their life cycle. The biggest benefits include: – Increased sales of up to 3 percent from improved store in-stocks – Reduction in store labor expenses – Receiving – up to 65 percent – Stocking – up to 25 percent – Cycle Counting – up to 25 percent – Physical Counting – up to 100 percent – Reduction in shrink equivalent of nearly 1 percent of sales – Inventory write-offs from spoilage and obsolescence reduced by up to 20 percent Although item level tagging and reading will return the greatest level of benefits, case and pallet tagging also provide significant returns. Higher margin categories such as apparel, consumer electronics, computers, media (such as CDs, software and books) and pharmaceuticals will likely be among the first to be tagged. Based on our experience, we suggest the following steps to obtain the highest Auto-ID technology benefits in the shortest timeframe: – Begin with an investment-grade business case to identify the highest potential value creating opportunities. – Determine deployment models. – Conduct pilots to test and refine deployment models. – Scale deployment to obtain maximum benefits.

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