Kid's Clothing Company Uses RFID From Factory to Store

Every Trasluz store averages 120 square meters (1,292 square feet) in size, and has 6,000 to 7,000 items in stock. With the RFID system, each store is able to employ only two or three employees (due to the reduction in time required for inventory checks with bar-coding). The labor needed to receive new goods is cut in half, Muñoz estimates, compared to that which would be needed to perform inventory counts without the RFID system. Shrinkage is also reduced, he says, because the company now has greater visibility into which goods should be at a particular store, as well as when they left the warehouse, arrived at the store and were sold. Because all of the stores began operation with the RFID system, however, Trasluz cannot directly compare a non-RFID system with the existing technology. While inventory checks would traditionally require many hours of labor, Martinez notes, it now takes an employee less than an hour to complete inventory counts for an entire store. Reordering is also fast, thereby reducing the likelihood of out-of-stocks.

An RFID reader antenna built into a floor mat can be used to determine whether any items leaving the store have not been paid for.

By the end of this year, Trasluz plans to have more than 50 franchised stores, including some in Asia. Each new store will be RFID-enabled, the company reports, just like the first 30.

What's more, Trasluz expects to implement RFID smart shelves at other stores in addition to the existing deployment, as well as install the loss-prevention system based on RFID floor mats at all new stores, and introduce a customer loyalty program based on RFID cards, in order to provide a more personalized customer shopping experience.