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- Adding RFID Data to an Existing Solution
- Capturing Inventory Data via Handheld Readers
- Enabling Seamless Purchasing at the Point of Sale
Manhattan Associates has enhanced its point-of-sale (POS) and inventory-fulfillment app with passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) radio frequency identification (RFID) support for handheld reader-based inventory-management and order-fulfillment activities. The combination of RFID and the company’s Active Omni suite is intended to help retailers boost inventory accuracy and gain other RFID-based efficiency improvements without having to integrate the RFID data with a separate management system.
The Active Omni system’s RFID capabilities are intended to streamline and automate inventory counting and receiving processes, according to Amy Tennent, Manhattan Associates’ senior director of product management. The solution can accommodate data captured via handheld devices for receiving, inventory audits, searching for specific products, merchandise transfers and omnichannel sales. Stores are also using RFID readers at the point of sale to automatically collect data about goods being purchased, for automated replenishment and inventory updates within the Active Omni app. Intended for in-store management for retailers, the app was released in 2017.
The cloud-based commerce solution helps retailers track their inventory fulfillment, as well as view and manage customer-engagement and POS data. Since its release, Tennent says, the solution has been in use at approximately 20,000 stores. Over time, she reports, the company has seen many of its retailer customers “piloting and going live with RFID in their stores.” That industry-wide interest in or adoption of RFID technology led Manhattan Associates to consider incorporating RFID tag-read data into its own solution, “to ensure that they could leverage this one app in the store for both prioritizing which orders to pick, as well as finding the inventory.”
Adding RFID Data to an Existing Solution
Amy Tennent
Manhattan Associates saw RFID trends as both a challenge and an opportunity, Tennent explains. “What we saw,” she says, “was that these customers don’t really want to have another solution in the store, or to need integration between the two solutions in the store,” especially if Active Omni and a separate RFID system might replicate data. “Back in 2018, we had done integration with the Zebra SmartLens overhead solution.”
That system captured real-time data regarding the location and status of merchandise via overhead UHF RFID readers, with a tag attached to each product. Manhattan Associates leveraged that data within its own solution to help store employees optimize the picking process when selecting items that were either being picked up via the “buy online, pickup in store” model, or were being shipped directly to customers. The software stored the RFID data based on specific tag locations, captured by the overhead readers.
About two years ago, Tennent says, Manhattan Associates found that most of its customers were considering or launching an RFID system using handheld readers. In early 2022, the company thus focused on building out its inventory-fulfillment and POS management software and app to enable these stores to integrate their RFID data captured from handheld readers, as well as fixed POS readers that interrogate product tags at the cash register. Now, the company is making the full solution available for all customers, including the integrated RFID data.
Capturing Inventory Data via Handheld Readers
Manhattan Associates is partnering with two retailers, with plans to go live by early summer. These two companies—one in North America, the other based out of Europe with a global presence—had already been using the Active Omni app. Now, they are also employing handheld and POS RFID readers to automatically capture inventory data. “The idea is to transition into an all-in-one solution in the store,” Tennent says, which includes the management software, as well as RFID technology.
The app is intended for in-store use only, as opposed to supply chain or distribution center management. Store associates would use the app to capture products’ ID numbers during receiving. They could employ handheld RFID readers from a variety of suppliers to scan all the tags within a carton, without having to open the box. Manhattan Associates is using products from Zebra, as well as from other RFID vendors. This process of reading the tags automatically updates the in-store inventory count, while reducing the need for the labor that would be required to perform item-by-item store receiving counts.
With the handheld reader, data can be captured during receiving and during full weekly or daily inventory counts. The app updates information including at what point each product was last identified via an RFID tag read. In that way, workers can more easily trace product information. For instance, an item may have only been read upon being received in the back room, indicating that it may not have yet been brought to the storefront.
Stores can use the system to identify damaged products. An employee would simply read a product’s tag and input data indicating that the item had received some kind of damage. Because a store’s inventory data is more accurate with RFID technology, Tennent says, workers can more readily offer omnichannel sales with confidence that products are available. The system knows how many units of every item are in each store, and that data can be easily accessed and trusted as accurate.
Enabling Seamless Purchasing at the Point of Sale
When shoppers select a product for purchase, such as a pair of pants, they carry that item to the point of sale and place it on the counter. A fixed RFID reader at that location captures the tag ID of the pants’ label, after which the Active Omni system updates the store’s inventory data indicating the product has been sold. It can also trigger replenishment orders, without requiring integration with other software.
From a returns perspective, if the customer later brings that pair of pants back to the store, the app can complete a validated return by scanning the RFID tag and immediately restoring that item to inventory. Alternatively, Tennent says, if the tag is removed or damaged, “We’re also providing the ability to re-tag in-store.” An employee would pull a tag off a roll of adhesive RFID labels, scan both that tag and the item’s barcode, and thus create a link between the new tag and the product being returned.
In addition, the system can be used when goods are transferred between stores. If a retailer’s merchandising representatives choose a set of products to move from store A to store B, those items could be found via a handheld in Geiger counter mode, and the tags could then be read as the items were shipped. On the receiving side at the other store, workers could simply receive those items by scanning them and thus knowing if everything had arrived. In the future, Tennent says, the solution could be expanded to enable self-purchasing for consumers, using an RFID reader built into a self-service kiosk. “That has been under some discussion as a steppingstone,” she states.
Ultimately, Manhattan Associates predicts. the inclusion of RFID data will allow customers greater inventory accuracy, while enabling them to benefit from the management features already provided by the Active Omni platform. Tennent expects those using the RFID-enabled app to be able to offer omnichannel sales with greater confidence. If a retailer has stock-count inaccuracies, she adds, “Then I have customer disappointment issues,” and concern about such issues has made some retailers “a little bit leery about offering omnichannel sales.”
Key Takeaways
- Manhattan Associates already offered its Active Omni app as a software-based solution to manage inventory and replenishment, and RFID integration will now be part of that offering.
- At least two retailers have been piloting the solution with RFID and plan to go live at their stores around the world by this summer.