Shoe retailer Peltz Shoe uses RFID to achieve precise management of single product inventory
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Florida shoe retailer Peltz Shoes sticks passive EPC Gen 2 RFID tags on each shoe box in the company’s four stores and uses an RFID cart to manage inventory. According to the company, this system has helped Peltz Shoes save approximately 1,500 man-hours, but this is only a partial benefit, according to Peltz Shoes owner Gary Peltz. In the past 12 months, the company has performed a total of 5 complete inventory counts-each store has approximately 30,000 pairs of shoes. Before the RFID system was adopted, the company could only count inventory once a year (or less frequently). . Accurate inventory management ensures that customers (whether in physical stores or online) can buy the shoes they want.
Peltz Shoes is a family business founded in 1957. With the popularization of the Internet, the proportion of the company’s online sales is increasing, which requires higher inventory accuracy. After all, Peltz said, if the customers who come to the physical store do not have the shoes in stock, the salesperson can sell them and sell another pair of shoes. But for online customers, if the shoes they need are not in stock, they will turn to other online stores. Peltz has been paying attention to RFID for some time, hoping to use this technology to manage inventory accurately and more stably.
<1>Gary Peltz finger a shoe box with UHF EPC Gen 2 label
Peltz Shoes is one of Florida’s largest shoe retailers. It is estimated that shoe sales will reach 350,000 pairs this year. Gary Peltz said that it takes a lot of time to find the one you need among the rows of men’s and women’s shoe boxes filled with various styles in the store.
In addition, Peltz Shoes has always hoped to attach a label to each shoe box, which will print the brand, style, color, size, price and other information of the shoe on it, so as to better identify and distinguish the shoe box.
The timing of the implementation of this RFID solution is very good. Peltz said that the surface of the RFID label can be printed with price, description information, and barcoded unique product code (UPC) and SKU code. Before the application, Peltz said that the store also tested the handheld reader to read the ID code of each UHF EPC Gen 2 tag, but found that the reading rate did not meet the company’s requirements.
In cooperation with the label manufacturer Monarch, the company developed an RFID reader cart, which uses Alien Technology RFID readers, and installs multiple antennas on a pole of the cart with a height of 7 feet so that the reader can read The shoe box on the top shelf. When the cart is pushed through a row of shelves in the store, the reader reads the ID code of each tag, and the cart screen displays a list of all the ID numbers that have been read. The reader transfers this information to the software developed by Peltz through the Wi-Fi connection. The software receives and compiles the label data, and sends the information to the store inventory management software.
When the new shoes arrived, the employees had received the UPC code and product introduction. The receiving employee then uses a Zebra Technology printer (one for each store) to generate an RFID label, and print the relevant information and barcode UPC and SKU codes on the front. The employee pastes the label on the shoe box, and this record is also stored in the management system, so that the data corresponds to the ID code of the label.
When the store performs inventory counting, employees use carts to read all the tags in the store. After that, the carts are transported to the next store for inventory counting. By knowing the precise inventory of each store, Peltz Shoes can replenish inventory more accurately and ensure that all products listed on the company’s website are in stock. When Peltz receives the order, it takes the ordered shoes from four locations, packs them, and ships them to the customer.
Currently, Peltz does not read the RFID tags of shoes at the checkout counters of the four retail stores, but the company has plans to implement this feature in the future.
For online customers, this system can provide a real-time inventory of inventory. They can check whether the shoes they need are in stock, and if so, they can place an order directly.
However, this system still has some minor problems, Peltz said, it can’t provide all the functions he expected. For example, he said that although the reading rate is over 99%, there are still some label reading failures, sometimes because the label does not work properly, Peltz said.
In the future, Peltz hopes to add several functions to this system. One is to check the inventory of the company’s four stores in real time to check whether the shoes are correctly placed. If, for example, a pair of women’s shoes is placed on a men’s shoe rack, the reader or back-end software will send a message to the employee to prompt the problem.
Peltz also hopes to program a handheld reader to find a specific shoe. When the device detects the RFID code of the pair of shoes, it sends a voice prompt.
Finally, Peltz also plans to install an RFID access door to prevent theft of goods.
Although it is currently difficult to quantify the return on investment, Peltz estimates that the company has already recovered the return in the first year of application. The price of the label is 11 cents a year, and the company needs to spend $40,000-$50,000 per year, but Peltz said that the increase in product sales can easily offset this part of the expenditure, and customer satisfaction has also been improved.
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