Although the brick-and-mortar shopping experience has its benefits, inventory can be disorganized and difficult to browse. When a customer finds the product she wants, an associate may not be able to locate the size or color she needs, leading to a daunting roadblock in the buying process.
Saks Fifth Avenue is leveraging RFID to improve the shoe shopping experience in its flagship store in New York City. Using the TrueVUE Inventory Display Execution application from Tyco Retail Solutions, associates can easily count shoes on the display floor and generate a report of all missing shoes to streamline the replenishment process. As a result, the retailer has reached nearly 100% display compliance.
“To ensure the best possible footwear discovery experience for our customers, we wanted to maximize the number and availability of display shoes,” said Ed Stagman, SVP of Store Operations at Saks Fifth Avenue, in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. However, previous manual process made it “too time intensive to do so.”
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Prior to partnering with Tyco in late 2012, the sheer volume and velocity of shoes flowing into the New York City store “was creating a challenge to meet display compliance goals consistently,” Stagman added. With the process typically taking up several hours for associates each day, “we needed a process to better inventory the shoe display and validate compliance to back stock shoes in a more efficient and consistent manner.”
An Improvement In Customer Service And Product Discovery
The TrueVUE Inventory Display Execution application helps Saks employees ensure all shoe models and styles are represented on the store floor, which has led to an increase in sales.
“With 4,000 shoes on display throughout the store and luxury price points that can reach $4,000 per pair,” Stagman noted, “we believe it is imperative that every shoe be represented on the selling floor at all times. Shoes cannot be discovered or sold if they are tucked away and missing from the display.”
Saks also has improved inventory compliance dramatically. Previously, it took store associates up to one week — several hours a day — to complete the entire floor, and only achieved 65% compliance. Now, it takes only 20 minutes a day to complete, so employees can keep pace with new shipments while maintaining near-perfect display compliance.
Not only has RFID helped improve back-end processes, it also has encouraged a drop in labor costs and empowered associates focus more on the customer experience.
“By relying on the TrueVue Display Execution application we have improved sales, optimized merchandise and delivered on our mission to offer unparalleled customer service,” Stagman said. “Associates are no longer tied up with inventory tasks and are able to spend more time showing customers the latest in footwear fashion.”
