Kimberly-Clark Gets an Early Win

Even though it's not possible for POS data to differentiate between products in the display and the same product on the shelf because they have the same UPC, the Axiom reports can use POS data to show the increase in sales achieved in stores when the displays are properly merchandised.

The system has given K-C a level of visibility that it never had before. The company has used the RFID data to solve some challenges it has had with delivering product and display materials to a facility for assembly and packing. "We found that some of the execution issues with our in-store promotions started right at the beginning in the promotion planning phase," says Therrien. "We've tightened up those issues and haven't seen any of them in the last five or six months."

K-C also learned there are very different levels of execution within the same retail chain. Some stores get the displays out on time every time, and others get them out and then take them back to the storeroom.

"Some stores were taking the displays back and forth from the back of the store to the retail floor, which means they were using the displays to replenish the shelves, which wasn't the plan," says Therrien. "When we investigated, we found that displays didn't fit in their aisles. Store formats are not as uniform as we'd always like them to be, so we either need to redesign the displays for those stores or just ship them cases, and save the cost of having third parties assemble, fill and ship the displays. This information is new for the retailer as well, so they are learning along with us."

K-C has been sharing the data with its retail operations teams and merchandising agents, who are responsible for working with Wal-Mart to make sure promotional displays and products get to the retail floor on time. "We've been able to improve execution against critical milestones by 20 percent from the baseline of where we were four to five months ago," says Therrien. "We need more data to determine the exact impact, but early anecdotal evidence indicates that improved execution in the RFID-enabled promotion displays has the strong possibility of leading to increased sales. That's the business case for RFID right there."