Congrats! You've built your RFID business case and achieved project sign-off. Now, it's time to kick off your RFID pilot testing phase. This is the bit where you make a plan, test the basics, and present your findings. It's a big job, and it can be tricky. Luckily, you're friends with us, and we love sharing knowledge. Keep reading to find out how it's all done!
Tag tactics: how to decide what to tag in your pilot
Your RFID pilot starts with product tagging. It’s rare to tag the whole stockroom for a pilot phase, so strategic choices are needed. These are some of the considerations we advise our clients make before picking products to tag — you might choose one or you might decide to mix and match. The best choice will depend on your goals for the project!
1) Ease
Sometimes, choosing what to tag can come down to whatever’s easiest! If you have a line of products with lovely big hang tags that are easy to pop an RFID sticker on in one go, then those might be your best bet. It all depends on your time and patience!
2) High-value products
Do you struggle to keep accurate inventory figures for your high-value products? If solid inventory numbers for your expensive products is your top priority, then this might be the SKU collection to start your pilot with.
3) Budget
Budget has a role to play in your tagging choice, too. If you’ve got a generous budget and oodles of time, you might want to do a pilot that includes all items of stock in the store. If you’ve got the cash and resources to tag more stock, you’ll have more data to back up your pilot!
4) Bestsellers
Starting with your bestsellers might be a no-brainer for you! Not only are they worth keeping close tabs on, but their fast movement and larger volumes could mean more compelling data at the end of the pilot!
5) Stock discrepancies
Got a handful of SKUs that always seem to be off, no matter how often you count? Those babies would be a great place to start an RFID pilot, especially if you can use it to prove the efficacy of the tech regarding accurate numbers.
See an RFID pilot in action
Here’s what happened when we ran (and documented) an RFID test pilot with Dutch company, terStal. Because sometimes you’ve gotta hear it straight from the client’s mouth!
Store scan evaluation: your RFID pilot in 4 steps
We advise this process for branded retailers in the discovery phase of their RFID project—that is, they want to test the tech and reveal the inventory truth.
1) RFID store scan
Your pilot starts with tagging and scanning your chosen products in-store. If you partner with a global integrated specialist like us, you’ll get hands-on help from the pros. We can even send people to help you label the hang tags on your chosen product lines using encoded RFID stickers. Then, we’ll start RFID scanning to get an accurate starting stock count.
It’s easiest to start with a small selection to hand tag in-store rather than going the whole shebang and getting all your garments tagged at source, which needs a whole lotta staff training and tweaks to your existing labeling process. The aim of the game in the pilot is to quickly prove that the KPIs that you put in your business case are achievable.
2) Compile stock on hand and key data
Your next move is to gather data and stock on hand. Anything useful to the pilot is good to include. You’ll want figures for the cost of your stock on hand, data on out-of-stocks, and data on e-commerce refunds given due to inaccurate inventory numbers. If it’s helpful to your pilot, include it!
3) Stock on hand vs RFID
This is where your discrepancies start to creep out — and that’s exactly what we want! For example, your inventory says you’ve got 12 pairs of jeans to tag for your pilot, but you can only find 10 pairs when you pull them out. Noting down these discrepancies is super helpful to your pilot, and at the end of it, you’ll have an accurate stock figure you can prove with the store scan. And we’re not done yet!
You can also include source tagged items from external brands in your pilot. If your receiver note logs a specific inventory count, but your scan count shows a discrepancy then that’s more awesome data to prove the efficacy of your pilot. Stay tuned to the Checkpoint blog for more info on this in the future!
4) Present your findings like the champ you are
By now, you’ll have all the juicy intel you’ll need to determine your RFID ROI potential if you choose to launch your full project. In our many years working with retail brands on their RFID rollouts, the tech has (in most cases) delivered a return on investment in 12 months or less. There’s a pretty good chance you’ll see the same result.
Are you teeming with questions about launching your own RFID project pilot or rollout? Excellent — we’d love to hear them. Reach out and ask away! We’ve guided hundreds of brands through the process over our decades working with RFID technology and there’s not much we haven’t come up against. For more info on RFID and its myriad applications, visit the Checkpoint blog.
