RFID technology promotes innovative changes in clothing retail operation models
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In recent years, the rapid development of “Internet of Things technology” has set off another wave of “information technology revolution” after “computers”, “Internet” and “mobile communication networks”. It has broad application prospects in many industries, especially clothing retail, and has attracted great attention and attention from countries all over the world. The development of the Internet of Things technology represented by “RFID technology” has and will continue to promote the innovation and transformation of the clothing retail operation model. Below, the author will explain from three aspects: the characteristics of RFID technology and its development background, the characteristics and development needs of the clothing retail industry, and the application of RFID technology in the clothing retail industry.
1. The characteristics of RFID technology and its development background
1.1 RFID technical characteristics
RFID is the abbreviation of English Radio Frequency Identification, that is, radio frequency identification, commonly known as electronic tag. This technology is a non-contact automatic identification technology, which mainly uses radio frequency signals to automatically identify target objects and obtain related information without manual intervention. It can accurately identify moving objects in various states such as stationary, moving and even harsh environments. RFID technology has the characteristics of small size, large capacity, long life, strong penetration, reusability, support for fast reading and writing, locating and long-term tracking of items, etc. It is used in food safety, quality management, manufacturing supply chain management, and intelligent transportation. And so on, it has great application potential.
1.2 RFID technology development background
Since entering the 21st century, enterprise supply chain management has entered a new period of development. The traditional Internet of Things technology represented by RFID technology has been rapidly developed and applied in the field of supply chain management, and the potential of Internet of Things technology in improving the efficiency of enterprise supply chain management has also been widely recognized. At the same time, the development of the global apparel retail industry is facing new challenges. The apparel industry market is changing rapidly, with strict seasonal requirements and long design cycles. More and more clothing companies are beginning to adopt the SPA (Specialty Store Retailer of Private Label Apparel) “private label professional retailer” model. An integrated approach where the head office is responsible for everything from product planning, design, production to retail. It was proposed by the American GAP company, and then successfully used and promoted in Japan World Co., Ltd. (a well-known clothing company in Japan). The key to the SPA model is to “have a complete information and logistics network.” Therefore, the IT system is an indispensable technical support for the development of SPA, and the information system based on RFID Internet of Things technology is also becoming an important support and key to the clothing industry SPA Technology.
It is not difficult to see that the development of RFID technology has a very close relationship with the “clothing retail industry”, and the two complement each other. On the one hand, the rapid development of the “clothing retail industry” makes it need more effective IoT technology support; on the other hand, it is precisely this industry demand that makes RFID technology have a larger practical platform and application space. Therefore, the relationship between the two cannot be said to be unclosed, and it cannot be said that it is not “separately seeks, but complements each other and develops together”. However, the connection of any thing is not accidental, but is caused by a special “necessary existence” in the secret. This inevitable existence depends on the complementarity or similarity of the two structures. For the “RFID technology and clothing retail industry”, it is the structural characteristics of the two that make the two happy “commercial marriage.” Regarding the characteristics of RFID technology, I have already made a detailed statement above and will not repeat it here; below, the author will mainly explain the structural characteristics and management mode of the apparel retail industry in order to better understand the “matching” of the “marriage” of the two. , And the breakthrough and innovation of the clothing retail industry operating mode under the conditions of “marriage”.
2. The characteristics of the apparel retail industry and its development needs
2.1 Characteristics of the apparel retail industry
Just like the clothing itself, there are many styles; the clothing industry has many characteristics, and the specific classification can be roughly divided into the following points: 1. The clothing industry is a labor-intensive industry; 2. The clothing industry lacks economies of scale; 3 , The clothing operation process is long; 4. The clothing fashion cycle is short; 5. The market demand is diversified; 6. The intangible value of clothing; 7. There are many related industries. This article only introduces the characteristics of structural similarity.
2.1.1 Long garment operation process
Although the processing flow of clothing itself is not long, the introduction of new styles in each season often involves spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing, the development and production of new clothing fibers, plus the sales link, which contradicts the short cycle of fashion trends.
2.1.2 Short fashion cycle of clothing
The clothing fashion cycle is not only reflected in the short fashion season, but also in the rapid changes in fabrics, fashion colors, styles, and designs. This feature brings unlimited vitality to the clothing industry, and also brings high risks and instability to the operation of clothing companies. .
2.1.3 Diversified market demand
This determines that small batches and multiple varieties are an important feature and trend of apparel marketing, and market segmentation and differentiation are important means of non-price competition.
2.1.4 Many related industries
2.2 The development needs of the apparel retail industry
From the above, it can be found that the long operating process, short fashion cycle, high market demand, and wide range of industries involved in the clothing industry will undoubtedly bring very tedious work and huge time challenges to its’retail’. Behind this challenge, time and money are intertwined, cost and profit are entangled, all require merchants to seek “magic weapons” to reduce the disadvantages in garment processing, classification and sales, and to improve efficiency as much as possible; at this time, RFID technology ” Prosperous due to luck”, with its fast and unique radio frequency signal automatic identification function, it is active in all corners of clothing production, processing, and retail, and it plays the prominent role of “artificial intelligence” in saving time and effort; it has successfully contributed to the “RFID technology and clothing”. The marriage of the retail industry. First of all, RFID technology uses the “RFID tag” in the production process of clothing, using an electronic tag writer to write some important attributes of a single piece of clothing such as: name, grade, article number, model, fabric, lining, washing method, implementation standards, Write the product number, inspector number and other information into the corresponding electronic label, and attach the electronic label to the garment (Note: The attachment method of the electronic label can be: implanted in the garment, made into a nameplate or tag, or recyclable The anti-theft hard label method, etc.). Since each piece of clothing is given a unique electronic tag identification that is difficult to forge, counterfeiting can be effectively avoided, and the problem of anti-counterfeiting of brand clothing can be well solved. Then, according to the production specifications, the manufacturer puts each XX product in a carton. When the carton passes through the storage scanning channel, the reader scans the label. This greatly saves time and labor costs, improves the efficiency of clothing classification, storage, and distribution, and has a very positive effect on the growth of production efficiency.
3. Application of RFID technology in apparel retail industry
We take the RFID technology developed by Shanghai Superstar Technology Co., Ltd. as an example to illustrate the application of RFID technology in the apparel retail industry. Shanghai Chaoxing Technology Co., Ltd. is the world’s leading provider and service provider of RFID inventory visualization management and overall RFID clothing retail solutions from production to retail stores. Since 2004, RFID technology centers have been established in Shanghai and Hong Kong, focusing on RFID middleware and the seamless connection of RFID and industry applications. The Cretron® RFID clothing retail solution launched by the company has been successfully applied in Hong Kong and Europe in various industries such as clothing, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, and electronics.
Caretron® provides RFID solutions for warehouse centers such as warehousing, loading, inventory counting, picking, and outgoing, and customizes the best solution according to the different needs of users. Now I will analyze the application of RFID technology in warehouse management and smart stores.
3.1. RFID smart shelf
Some assets in traditional shelves have the characteristics of high value, strong liquidity, and difficult safety management. In order to check or count the real-time status of assets, staff need to waste a lot of precious time and manpower and material resources. Traditional management methods generally rely on non-automated methods based on paper documents to record and track management, which is inefficient. With the increase in the number of assets, the burden on the staff is getting heavier and heavier. It is also easy to omit or repeat during manual inventory, which often causes problems such as untimely data and high stock-out rate. In order to continuously improve the office efficiency of staff and reduce the shortage of goods in stores, RFID smart shelves came into being.
Cretron®’s RFID smart shelf system can automatically identify clothing tag information, display more product information, and enhance the shopping experience. Real-time knowledge of the selection or purchase of goods can help formulate accurate promotion plans, effectively manage store warehouses, and timely replenishment to prevent shortages.
Cretron®’s RFID smart shelf system includes the following links: 1. Obtain the RFID data collected by the reader; 2. After filtering the data, send the data collected by different readers to Different functional modules; 3. After the designated functional module receives the RFID data, it obtains the brand, price information and related model display videos of the clothing by querying the database, and displays them on the screen.
Cretron®’s RFID smart shelf system mainly has several features:
1. Display product specific information (brand introduction, model show, matching information, fabrics, prices, etc.) to enhance customers’ shopping fun;
2. RFID smart shelf monitors the quantity of goods in real time. When a certain item on the shelf is below a certain quantity, the system will prompt that the item needs to be restocked, and the staff will allocate resources reasonably to reduce the out-of-stock rate;
3. Improve work efficiency. Omissions, repetitions and errors are prone to occur during manual inventory;
4. Fast and accurate. The intelligent shelf system captures the RFID reader, filters and scans RFID information, and through the logical analysis of RFID data, it can quickly identify that a single product in the shelf is picked up, and display the detailed information of the single product.
5. Easy to use and easy to operate. During the use of the application system, through intelligent data analysis and processing, the staff can intuitively understand the information of the goods on the shelf, fast and convenient;
6. Stable performance and strong anti-interference ability. The RFID smart shelf can effectively solve the interference of external factors through the unique filtering algorithm of the RFID reader and the data logic of the smart shelf program.
Cretron®’s RFID retail smart shelf
3.2. RFID smart fitting room
With the continuous improvement of apparel companies’ awareness of informatization and intelligent applications, customers’ demand for store experience is increasing, and ordinary fitting rooms can no longer satisfy customers and apparel companies. A novel and fashionable RFID smart fitting system was born from this.
Cretron®’s RFID smart fitting room mainly includes: 1. Obtain the RFID reader to filter data, process the data, and display the clothing effect corresponding to the data; 2. Obtain the RFID reader scan from the smart fitting room program RFID data information, fast data verification operation and logic matching processing, display the clothing brand information, model show video, the clothing detailed information and the clothing or accessories that can be matched; 3. The fitting person can select other clothing and accessories through the touch screen. The clerk communicates without running back and forth between the fitting room and the hanger.
The RFID smart fitting room of Caretron® has five major features: 1. It is easy to use. The fitting person can intuitively understand the brand information, video information, and matching information of the clothing; 2. Fast and accurate. The smart fitting room system captures the RFID reader, filters and scans the RFID information, and can quickly identify and process the clothing information through RFID data analysis; 3. Humanization. In the fitting process, it is inevitable that the size of the clothing is not suitable, and the size needs to be changed, causing the fitting person to run between the fitting room and the hanger. The intelligent fitting room system can complete the communication between the clerk and the fitting person; 4 ,Improve work efficiency. The clerk does not need to introduce clothing information. As long as the clothing that the customer is interested in is sent to the fitting room, the customer can see all the information about the clothing, reducing the workload of the clerk. 5. Stable performance and strong anti-interference ability. The RFID smart fitting room can effectively solve the interference of external factors through the unique filtering algorithm of the RFID reader and the data logic of the smart fitting room.
Cretron®’s RFID smart fitting room
3.3. Application of RFID technology in clothing warehousing logistics
Because RFID technology has the characteristics of simultaneously identifying multiple tags in non-contact and non-visual situations, that is, dozens of full boxes of clothing with electronic tags attached can be accurately read all of their logistics data at one time through an RFID reader , Which greatly improves logistics efficiency. If RFID technology is used in the warehousing management, the warehousing management of the logistics distribution center, and the warehousing management of the retail store, the entire supply chain process of “shop replenishment demand—distribution center—manufacturer” can be realized. Optimized management.
The use of RFID technology in warehouse management can realize the visual management of all management units, which can greatly shorten the packaging, handling, inventory, and statistics time, thereby reducing cargo damage, accelerating capital turnover, and greatly improving the efficiency of warehouse management.
1. Logistics management. The benefits of RFID technology in clothing logistics are reflected in the efficiency of logistics management, logistics costs, and delivery control. The application of RFID technology realizes the standardization of clothing logistics operations, shortens operating procedures and operating time, reduces labor costs, thereby reducing operating costs, increasing the throughput of logistics links, increasing the transparency of supply chain management, and improving logistics management efficiency. At the same time, the use of RFID can minimize the delivery error rate, which mainly refers to the shortage of the original box and the error of the packing box.
Logistics warehousing management
2. Warehouse management. When garments are produced from the factory and go through the storage procedures, the staff put the goods on a forklift and send them to the back-end warehouse. If possible, a reader and antenna can be installed on each forklift to identify the RFID tag data. When the forklift brings the goods to the warehouse, it is read by the reader at the door of the warehouse and the tag information is sent to the warehouse The management system records the detailed information of the goods received. Cretron®’s RFID complete box channel has played a great help in the storage process, without unpacking and manual inventory, 350 garments can be directly read in just 15 seconds, with an accuracy rate of close to 100% , Greatly improve work efficiency and storage accuracy.
Caretron® FCL channel
In the warehouse, goods are placed on containers according to their type, such as style or brand. Bar codes are affixed to the shelves for easy identification. In daily life, employees use RFID devices to read cargo labels and shelf barcodes, and associate the goods with the stored shelves. The handsets are embedded with barcode scanners, and the containers use barcodes instead of RFID tags to avoid obtaining them at the same time. The ID numbers of several containers.
Warehousing inventory of warehousing management
3. Outbound management. Before being treated as RFID technology, the clothing delivery process was handled manually. That is to say, when these garments arrive at the distribution center from the manufacturer, the staff must manually check them one by one, and when the garments are sent to the clothing store, they must be packaged one by one and recorded manually, which results in many errors.
Through this process, 15,000 pieces of clothing items can be verified per hour in only one RFID channel. The automation of the verification process can reduce the time a single product spends in the supply chain by 5 to 7 days. The RFID channel is also equipped with an alarm device. According to the outbound order information of the central database, the goods that are out of the warehouse will be alarmed and the specific information of the wrong goods will be displayed, reminding the warehousing staff to re-check to prevent the phenomenon of random out of the warehouse.
Cretron® RFID door channel
Because RFID technology has the advantages of dynamically tracking products, not being restricted by time and space, reading multiple tags at the same time, and being difficult to forge, many foreign clothing companies have begun to apply RFID technology to manage clothing to provide customers with more efficient and convenient Serve. The application of RFID technology in China’s clothing industry is not very extensive, but some large brand clothing industries have already used RFID technology and achieved good results.
4. Innovative use of ideas
4.1 Constructing global supply chain management of apparel companies based on RFID IoT technology
Apparel companies can select different supply modes according to the specific characteristics of the products they want to supply and the scale of demand, so as to better improve the visibility of supply chain management and on-time delivery rate. Generally speaking, daily main commodities can be classified according to the quantity of supplied commodities and the visibility of the supply chain. For example, electronic products, watches, jewelry and other commodities have the characteristics of high value, small size and low delivery time. The supply service of such commodities can adopt the “stock replenishment model”; while clothing, popular items, vegetables and other commodities, With the characteristics of large quantity and high delivery time requirements, the supply service of such commodities can adopt the “distribution center direct replenishment model” to better ensure timely and accurate delivery.
4.2 Constructing the enterprise’s IT system architecture
In the system architecture of the application of RFID technology in the apparel industry, various RFID readers are applied to entrances and exits, smart fitting rooms, smart shelves, POS systems, and handheld readers. Without the support of RFID technology in the existing system, enterprise purchase order systems, distribution centers, warehouse management systems, etc. must collect product status information manually or semi-automatically, and interact with the ERP system. This process leads to operational efficiency. In addition, the information obtained is limited, which is not conducive to data mining, and does not support the development of business intelligence. In contrast, the new system of Internet of Things technology with RFID added, the process of obtaining information can be fully automated and managed, and the information obtained is more real-time and rich, which is convenient for data mining and can better support business Intelligent.
Through IT equipment, customers can complete the cashier payment process by themselves, obtain coupons in real time, and automatically accumulate points to the membership card. In addition, the invoice printer can automatically identify the customer’s shopping receipt, and automatically complete the printing of the invoice service. This greatly reduces the waiting time of customers in line, improves customer satisfaction, reduces the labor intensity of staff, and improves work efficiency. This self-service payment method is a win-win development model for merchants and customers.
4.3 Outstanding efficiency; obvious role; promoting innovation and transformation of operating models
In recent years, RFID technology has brought great benefits and significant performance improvements to the apparel industry, mainly in the following aspects:
1. For raw material manufacturers, RFID technology means faster inventory turnover and better supply capacity;
2. For manufacturers, RFID technology means efficient processing, faster capital flow, faster transportation, and better services for customers;
3. For distributors, RFID technology means higher transportation efficiency, more accurate delivery capability, stronger cargo tracking level and great cost savings;
4. For retailers, RFID technology means faster processing procedures, fewer out-of-stocks, smarter and succinct operation processes, and better customer service levels. Especially when dealing with the price reduction caused by the backlog of goods, they will negotiate with the supplier to take measures such as returning the goods;
5. For enterprise staff, regardless of the color or size of the product, the use of RFID technology can instantly obtain clothing data information, which can reduce labor intensity and greatly save time.
Now, the application of RFID technology is ubiquitous. It is used to process and distribute the data between the “internal distribution management system” and the “store management system” in the clothing operation management system. Each piece of clothing in the distribution center is affixed with an RFID tag. The transportation inspector scans and inspects each part of the clothing according to the replenishment order sent from the distribution management system. The shipment inspector uses a touch screen computer and a special reading device to scan For batches of clothes, an average of 5 pieces of clothes are scanned at a time, and he mainly focuses on which clothes are in the box. Print the packing list and put it in the garment box. The box is again attached with a new RFID tag, and then it is transported and distributed. Through the RFID devices distributed in various places, the enterprise information management system will receive data information of tens of thousands of pieces of clothing every day, and these information will be transmitted to the information management subsystem of the relevant store. Therefore, in stores, distribution centers, and RFID tag systems equipped with RFID devices, no matter where the clothing is currently in the supply chain, it can be quickly and accurately located. The application of RFID technology in the clothing industry is continuously improving the logistics and efficient management capabilities of clothing, and promoting the innovation and transformation of its operating model.
5 Conclusion
“Internet of Things Technology” is a new information technology that is being implemented and applied in various industries around the world. “RFID-based Internet of Things technology” can help companies obtain timely upstream and downstream market supply and demand information, formulate scientific and reasonable operating strategies, and better enhance their core competitiveness. In the short term, companies can use this technology to improve business processes, reduce operating costs, reduce various resource expenditures and unnecessary losses; in the medium and long term, companies can use “RFID Internet of Things technology” to better extract various Information and data mining are carried out to map to reasonable production and marketing strategies, instead of relying on traditional subjective decision-making, which greatly improves the intelligence of the business. The application of “RFID Internet of Things technology” in the clothing retail industry shows that this technology can tangibly improve the core competitiveness of enterprises; the development of this technology will continue to promote the innovation and transformation of the clothing retail operation model.
Company Profile
Shanghai Chaoxing Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise integrating R&D, production and sales of EAS products and RFID retail management systems for the retail market.Crete
Caretron® provides EAS product anti-theft systems and RFID retail solutions for retailers around the world. The brand considers retailers and their suppliers to reduce losses, increase product inventory and improve operational efficiency as its mission. As one of the first companies to enter the Chinese security market, the company has so far covered more than 20 provinces, cities and regions in China, providing efficient and timely pre-sales and after-sales services for domestic large and medium-sized retail customers. Since 2004, RFID technology centers have been established in Shanghai and Hong Kong, focusing on RFID middleware and the seamless connection of RFID and industry applications. With a professional team and first-class products and services, the company’s Caretron® RFID clothing retail solution has been successfully applied in Hong Kong and Europe in clothing, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, electronics and other industries. The global retail market is expanding and technology is constantly innovating. Shanghai Chaoxing will go all out to bring the most cutting-edge technology to retailers and help retail customers to obtain more profits.
More details:
www.caretron.cn
www.caretronsystems.com
400-820-7961
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