Big Retailers are Demanding RFID Tracking. Here’s why:

To handle rising customer expectations and improve inventory accuracy, businesses are implementing enhanced technology solutions that track assets and goods as they are received, displayed, and sold. The most efficient solution for this is by implementing RFID technology due to its ability to provide real-time visibility for in-motion inventory. Consequently, large-scale companies are now investing and demanding RFID-powered visibility from distributors to ensure proper tracking and traceability for the quality of their products. For example, retail giant Walmart is reawakening its mandates for radio frequency identification technology, requiring suppliers to include RFID tags on all products provided to the store by September 2022. The initiative is expected to reduce out-of-stocks while tracking customer demand patterns overtime for swifter reaction times during peak seasons. With Walmart leading the charge for better tracking efficiency, it is expected that other companies, big and growing alike, will follow suit.

Also fueling the rise of RFID’s popularity in retail is its high accuracy rates. Studies show that RFID delivers an 80% improvement in shipping accuracy and a 90% improvement in receiving time. While the cost of implementing RFID technology has been an issue in the past, the current price of UHF RFID tags has dropped up to 80% since the first Walmart mandates, eliminating the financial strains of modernized visibility. Not featuring RFID technology in your operations can lead to an inaccurate inventory that does not provide your workers with the visibility they need to find products and meet customer demands. In other words, to reap the 99.99% accuracy and maintain an accurate inventory, RFID has now become indispensable.

What else is RFID bringing to the table besides 99.99% inventory accuracy?

With RFID visibility comes a myriad of additional benefits and consequences that transform warehouse efficiency. When designed to meet your space’s constraints, an RFID tracking solution can…

1. Trace asset usage to lower replacement costs in the event of lost/stolen devices. - Efficiently tracking assets and materials is a challenge for most organizations, costing businesses thousands of dollars annually in repair and replacements. Luckily, Heartland’s RFID systems combined with AlwaysOn offer a fast and reliable way to track assets without having to count each item individually. By doing so, workers are able to verify device usage and placement, ensuring equipment is properly stored at the end of every shift to avoid breakdowns and misplacements. Greater device availability secures more uptime and digitization for entire workflows.
   
2. Maximize data accuracy and visibility - When data is being collected and uploaded electronically, businesses avoid errors, duplication of data, and lost inventory, resulting in less out-of-stocks and overstocking. Modernized mobile and handheld RFID readers are now designed for fast-pace distribution processes, and can help you gain instant visibility into your operations by connecting to your centralized database for instant count updates. Working within a reliable connectivity network, RFID data capture and mobile computing work together in providing real-time accurate data to multiple teams for faster response times. For example, updated counts and locations can accelerate order picking for quicker curbside service and more completed orders.
   
3. Save time and money by consolidating workflows - Implementing RFID applications can automatically track the movement of goods and upload the information to your financial management system. Therefore, they can remove the need for manual form filling and replace outdated spreadsheets. Heartland’s printing solutions and RFID readers help reduce labor costs, downtime, return shipment costs, and chargebacks to make your business more accurate and efficient.

Implementing RFID technology is proven to boost inventory accuracy and can help redefine your distribution process. Contact us at Heartland today to see how RFID efficiently captures data and monitors assets.