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Clothing Designer Brings RFID to Its Shoppers
The request indicating which item is needed, and in which fitting room, is transmitted wirelessly to a computer at the sales counter, as well as to the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet PDAs carried by store personnel. Employees press a prompt to indicate they will respond to the customer, then bring the requested item to the specific dressing room. If no staff member responds, the clerk working at the sales counter will receive an alert from the system after a predetermined amount of time, and can then either respond to the request or assign that task to someone else in the store.
By January 2008, the Hollola and St. Petersburg stores will also have an RFID-enabled point-of-sale (POS) system in which customers will place items they wish to purchase on the counter. A built-in RFID interrogator will automatically read the tags, and the POS system will total the items' cost for the customer. In a self-service version of the system, customers will also be able to pay for items without assistance from store personnel, by simply placing their purchases on the counter, then waiting for the total to be provided and using their credit card to pay for them. At that point, the tags will also be deactivated so the customer can take the items out of the store. If the tags are not deactivated, they will trigger an electronic alarm connected to a reader at the exit.
In the next six months, says NP's CEO, Risto Rosendahl, the company plans to deploy the Senso Shelf system on the sales floor at both the Hollola and St. Petersburg locations. Each Senso Shelf has a built-in interrogator that tracks the items in real time. Whenever a garment is removed from or returned to a shelf, that action is transmitted to the store's back-end system.
Customers at the Hollola store already like the system, Rosendahl says, though they have required some education to get accustomed to using it. "The sales staff sees the solution as an interesting opportunity to increase the sales," he says, "but the most convenient feature for them is the streamlined inventory process." Workers use the system to indicate when inventory arrives, when it needs to be replenished, and when it has been placed in the wrong location.
In the first half of 2009, NP expects to have the Senso fitting room and Senso Shelf systems deployed at all stores the company owns and operates in Finland.
"RFID has been a strategic decision," Rosendahl says. "During this [asset-tracking system deployment] process, we have realized that RFID is not only for saving costs. The main benefit for us will be the new shop and service concepts. We believe that better customer service, as well as lower cost, will be very important for our business."
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By January 2008, the Hollola and St. Petersburg stores will also have an RFID-enabled point-of-sale (POS) system in which customers will place items they wish to purchase on the counter. A built-in RFID interrogator will automatically read the tags, and the POS system will total the items' cost for the customer. In a self-service version of the system, customers will also be able to pay for items without assistance from store personnel, by simply placing their purchases on the counter, then waiting for the total to be provided and using their credit card to pay for them. At that point, the tags will also be deactivated so the customer can take the items out of the store. If the tags are not deactivated, they will trigger an electronic alarm connected to a reader at the exit.
In the next six months, says NP's CEO, Risto Rosendahl, the company plans to deploy the Senso Shelf system on the sales floor at both the Hollola and St. Petersburg locations. Each Senso Shelf has a built-in interrogator that tracks the items in real time. Whenever a garment is removed from or returned to a shelf, that action is transmitted to the store's back-end system.
Customers at the Hollola store already like the system, Rosendahl says, though they have required some education to get accustomed to using it. "The sales staff sees the solution as an interesting opportunity to increase the sales," he says, "but the most convenient feature for them is the streamlined inventory process." Workers use the system to indicate when inventory arrives, when it needs to be replenished, and when it has been placed in the wrong location.
"RFID has been a strategic decision," Rosendahl says. "During this [asset-tracking system deployment] process, we have realized that RFID is not only for saving costs. The main benefit for us will be the new shop and service concepts. We believe that better customer service, as well as lower cost, will be very important for our business."
