Major shoe brands roll out RFID technology across stores to improve inventory management and omni-channel sales | 04-09-2024 |

Allbirds, and Carrucci  global footwear brands based in USA,  but with on-line and retail outlets globally, have both recently adopted RFID technology to improve inventory management and help them launch omni-channel sales platforms.  

Allbirds is expanding its deployment of RFID technology to its UK stores. The company collaborated with Sensormatic Solutions in a successful roll out in its USA retail sites last year. The technology not only significantly improves the accuracy of inventory management, but also promotes the development of the omni-channel sales model, bringing major changes to the shopping experience and employee efficiency, the company says.

The traditional physical audit method, previously used by the company, resulted in inventory accuracy of only about 60%, which not only hit sales performance, but also caused unnecessary inventory backlog and waste, the company claims.

By cooperating with Sensormatic and Zebra who supplied the RFID readers, Allbirds has achieved rapid deployment of the technology. Currently the company's inventory accuracy has climbed to 98% thanks to precise inventory tracking and management capabilities brought by the RFID technology, it says. Its introduction not only greatly improves the accuracy of inventory data, but also reduces human errors, laying a solid foundation for the omni-channel sales model.

In store each pair of shoes is tagged with a unique RFID tag located underneath the removable insole. This design not only ensures the stability of the label, but also allows the shoe box to remain recyclable, reducing the environmental burden. Sales staff can quickly complete inventory counts with an RFID barcode reader across stacked boxes.

With the successful deployment of RFID technology, Allbirds officially launched its omni-channel sales model this Spring. Looking to the future, it plans to apply RFID technology to more areas. Micah Nelson product management director for the company explains, “We are considering installing RFID readers at points of sale or exits to prevent items from being lost. At the same time, we plan to use RFID technology to track the materials used in products and establish a complete history record for each pair of shoes or each piece of clothing.” 

Jamie Kress, North American RFID sales director of Sensormatic Solutions, believes that RFID technology has broad application prospects and huge room for growth in the retail field. 

In another move Carrucci Shoes, a mens shoe brand founded in Los Angeles 20 years ago used a retailer’s RFID mandate as catalyst to deploy an inventory management system identifying each product as it enters and leaves its warehouse. The data from the RFID4U solution, known as TagMatiks Wedge, not only helps ensure the right products are shipped to its customers, the retailers, but enables Carrucci to gain the high level of inventory accuracy needed for e-commerce sales, it claims.

Now that the system is fully live, the products are being tagged at the manufacturing site. When Carrucci places an order from the manufacturing site, they send the corresponding Avery Dennison tags to the factory. As the new products are packed in shoe boxes, the RFID tags are applied to each one, and the unique ID encoded on that tag is linked to the product SKU.

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