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AbsoluteSKY's Breakthrough Item-Level RFID Tracking Slashes Retailer Costs
By Elisabeth Lawrence
"The Radio Frequency Identification market is growing exponentially, with global RFID spending estimated to be between $3 billion and $6 billion worldwide by 2010," says John Frabasile, President and CEO of AbsoluteSKY (www.AbsoluteSKY.ca). With its RFID-based intelliTRACKER™ product suite for item-level inventory tracking in retail, AbsoluteSKY is poised to capture a substantial share of that market.
The mass merchandising giant Wal-Mart made the first splash when it instituted an RFID pilot program in 2003 to track merchandise at the case and pallet level with the objective, among others, of improving the test stores' out-of-stock rate. In May of this year, researchers at the University of Arkansas announced that this simple RFID implementation decreased the out-of-stock rates for certain inventory items by as much as 62 percent.
While the Wal-Mart trial demonstrated the efficacy of RFID tagging in retail, intelliTRACKER's innovative and fully integrated RFID-based technology solution has the potential to create a sea change in the specialty retail industry. According to Frabasile, "Our integrated intelliTRACKER product suite addresses critical issues for the specialty retail industry, such as automating inventory tracking to the item-level, improving the customer experience, reducing shrinkage and gaining full control over loss prevention." intelliTRACKER's ability to track individual items from the factory floor through the transportation and distribution chain to the retail location and point-of-sale makes it unrivalled in the RFID industry.
By tagging each individual product with its own "license plate," AbsoluteSKY's RFID system provides the retailer with the real-time inventory data needed to maximize sales while cutting labor costs. For example, intelliTRACKER's item-level tracking allows retailers to accurately measure the sell-through rate of every item, giving them the ability to order additional fast-selling inventory and begin discounting slow-selling inventory at the proper time. In contrast,
traditional inventory tracking systems often mislead retailers into thinking they have slow-selling inventory, when other factors – such as shoplifting or damaged goods – are the culprits in inventory depletion. This misinformation can lead to poor decisions about markdowns or prevent retailers from ordering additional inventory of quick-selling items.
The intelliTRACKER RFID product suite gives retailers the detailed information they need to make other types of informed decisions. By having actual sell-through rates – rather than waiting for periodic physical inventories – retailers can perform accurate vendor analyses, which will ultimately improve sales. In addition, missed sales opportunities lessen considerably, since intelliTRACKER alerts the merchant when the inventory of desirable sizes or items gets low, and identifies and accounts for damaged items.
Importantly, intelliTRACKER also smoothes the process of inter-store transfers, boosts the accuracy of automated replenishment systems, and provides style aging information for better markdown management.
According to Frabasile, retailers using the intelliTRACKER RFID product suite reap enormous benefits in saved labor costs. "In-store staff no longer has to count merchandise for any process, such as receipts, transfers in, transfers out, inventory, and sales. As a result, the retailer has an immediate and recurring savings in labor. If a retailer chooses to apply these saved hours to the selling floor to better serve customers, it's virtually certain that he or she will see an up-tick in sales."
With the RFID industry expected to grow exponentially in the next few years, AbsoluteSKY is far ahead of the curve. "Many companies that see RFID as the wave of the future have products in development," says Frabasile. "But the right combination of breakthrough technology and business acumen has already been integrated into our intelliTRACKER RFID product suite."
In other words, for AbsoluteSKY, the future is now.
Elisabeth Lawrence is the Senior Editor for Press Direct International. She is a veteran writer and TV producer/director. Received three EMMY awards while at CBS. Wrote for the Wall Street Journal, and as a TV & video consultant, handled material for Fortune 500 clients including Exxon, Pepsico, The Ladies Home Journal, RJR Nabisco, J.C. Penney, Hill & Knowlton and United Artists.
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