Inventory visibility is the key enabler for optimizing customer experience
Nedap , the global leader in RFID solutions, is selected by fast-growing sports and outdoor retailer XXL All Sports United to deploy its iD Cloud platform. The key driver for implementing RFID is to increase inventory accuracy, which results in high operational gains both in stores and for e-commerce. XXL All Sports United, active in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Austria, has deployed iD Cloud in all Norwegian stores and will finalize the rollout to the rest of its 89 megastores before the end of the first half of 2022. The project is implemented by Nedap partner Securitas.
Pål Wibe, CEO at XXL All Sports United comments: “We were pleased to see that we grew in all our markets this past year; now it is up to us to maintain and further strengthen this position. One of the key contributors to this growth is our e-commerce strategy. If we want to stay in the driver seat, we need healthy inventory and operational excellence. RFID is a key technology to make this happen.”
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Improving e-commerce fulfillment using store inventory
Before implementing RFID, XXL All Sports United had a market normal in-store inventory accuracy of 75-85%. Besides losing sales in store by not having the right items available with the subsequent negative customer experience, this also led to inefficiencies fulfilling e-commerce orders. In some cases, items had to come from multiple stores to get one order out of the door.
Espen Terland, CIO at XXL All Sports United comments: “We tried to offer omnichannel services like click & collect with other technologies. However, none of these provided us with what we really needed: a single point of truth, showing all inventory we have available. We are now close to 100% accuracy, and this really builds the foundation for us to trust our stock levels, digitize our store inventory, display this online and optimize our customers’ experience by giving them the items they want, when they want them.”
The dynamics of countries going into lockdown has underlined the importance of total stock visibility. This way XXL All Sports United are able to replenish the store stock in a much more detailed way, but also leverages store stock to fulfill e-commerce orders and offer omnichannel services. “This way we optimize the customer experience against healthy margins”, Espen Terland says.
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In-store benefits
With between 70 000 and 100 000 items in store, refill processes used to take several hours. Long refill processes increase the risk of stock-outs. Espen Terland, CIO at XXL All Sports United: “Based on RFID data, store associates are now able to quickly look up on their mobile devices the items they need to refill. This ensures that we always have the right item available. By limiting the time spent replenishing the store, we can now spend more time helping customers.”
Leveraging RFID source-tagged brands to accelerate growth
XXL All Sports United leverages RFID source-tagged items from leading brands such as Under Armour. Non-tagged items will be provided with an RFID label in stores, or as a value-added service by some of the brands. The more brands that come in source-tagged, the higher the efficiency gains will be. Kim André Dalsaune, Sales Manager at Securitas Norway comments: “It’s a pleasure to work with the biggest and fastest growing sports and outdoor retailer in the Nordics in partnership with Nedap. The growth XXL All Sports United achieved especially in the past year is impressive and the implementation of RFID technology will support them becoming the most preferred sports & outdoor destination. By digitizing inventory using the Nedap iD Cloud platform, XXL All Sports United will be able to use every unique item where it is most needed: in one of their megastores or online.”
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