Key Advances in Store Inventory Management

Retailers increasingly depend on their stores to fulfil both in-store and online orders. However, their ability to do so is often hindered by poor store inventory accuracy, which frequently falls below 70%. In fact, a recent survey found that only 3% of retailers believed they had an accurate view of inventory in stores and across their distribution network.

As a result, a new vision for an RFID-powered store has been unveiled by Manhattan Associates. Manhattan Active® Omni suite has expanded its support of RFID tags for automating and streamlining the inventory counting, receiving, picking, checkout, return and exchange processes. With this new solution, retailers can make more accurate promises, increase conversion rates and maximise inventory exposure for selling.

Manhattan has addressed store inventory challenges by enabling its point-of-sale and store fulfillment solutions with handheld RFID support for all inventory management and order fulfilment activities. By combining RFID technology with Manhattan Active Omni, retailers can increase store inventory accuracy from 70% to nearly 100%. Manhattan’s solution also reduces inventory-related labour hours, helps associates quickly locate merchandise and expedites transactions at the point of sale.

Manhattan Active Omni’s RFID capabilities streamline and automate inventory counting and receiving processes. Store-wide inventory counts can be performed quickly and accurately by store associates armed with the latest handheld devices, such as Zebra’s RFD series. Associates can also use the mobile RFID scanners to significantly reduce the time required to perform unit-level receiving of new inventory items.

In active store environments, it is common for merchandise to be moved by customers or even misplaced by store staff. Manhattan’s new “find” mode works just like a metal detector, using handheld RFID devices to direct store associates to the precise location of tagged items, reducing inventory shortages and time spent hunting for missing items.

Manhattan’s new RFID capabilities can also speed up sales transactions and returns. Readers placed at the point-of-sale capture tag information as soon as the merchandise is placed on the counter, immediately populating the customer’s shopping cart.

“Manhattan Active Omni delivers a unified approach to selling, engaging and fulfilling in a single store application. By integrating RFID into its store solutions, Manhattan can reduce the time and effort required to implement RFID while ensuring store associates can continue to leverage the most advanced store solution in the market,” said Amy Tennent, senior director of Product Management for Manhattan.

“Agile omnichannel inventory management and fulfilment are critical to modern store operation,” said Bill Toney, vice president Global RFID Market Development at Avery Dennison. “We believe the combination of Manhattan’s store solutions and Avery Dennison’s innovative RFID and digital identification solutions will enable retailers to transform inventory management and streamline store operations while delivering a first-class consumer experience.”

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