RFID implementation to the current e-commerce product
The popular nordic shirt brand owns an online store and a network of branded offline shops. If you came across or owned a similar business, then you know how difficult it is to keep goods in the right quantity in the stocks of all outlets. Inventory accounting is delegated to the goods manager or store manager. And this person constantly monitors the actual stocks of goods in all outlets.
Business problems
What is the risk? Here are some examples:
- More goods in one store and a shortage of this product in another one. We take the car and transport goods.
- Popular product models run out quickly. We constantly have to order and wait for the delivery.
- The wrong item is sent by mistake. Then we get the situation from the first example.
This all leads to additional costs and reduced profitability.
RFID helps in solving such problems!
This company reached us with a similar problem – controlling the residual products available in company stores and in the central stock. Their process was cumbersome and included manual physical accounting and ordering from the stock. We proposed introducing RFID tags for products. This greatly simplified the work with balances and below you can find the explanation.
Resources
Technologies
- Swift
- RFID
- ASP.NET
- ASP.NET Web API
- MS SQL Server
- Microsoft Azure
Solution Ecosystem
- iOS app
- Nedap !D Hand RFID reader
- Web Portal
- REST API
- Integration with Magento
Developers team
- two .Net developers
- two QA specialists
- Business Analyst
- Team Lead
The development process and solving problems
Where to store product data?
We used Microsoft Azure to develop a web portal. We included all the data on the goods in the portal database and generated RFID tags. This allowed us to access the web portal from any device anywhere in the world. For example, in a company store 🙂
How to control balances in stock and in stores?
For the web portal, we created a function that carries out all the calculations. Now, the store employees can easily control the physical balances in just a couple of minutes. The application automatically decides which products need to be ordered from the stock, and places an order on behalf of the store. The regional managers have an easy-to-use tool that controls the rules for replenishing stocks in stores.
How to scan RFID tags in the stock and in the store?
For this purpose, we purchased Nedap’s RFID Handheld Readers !D and connected them to the iOS-based smartphones. For smartphones, we created an application that processes tags and exchanges data with a web portal. The advantage of smartphones is that it is easier to update the application and you can add additional functionality that is lacked in conventional RFID tag readers.
How to manage the online store?
Since the online store uses the availability of the central stock, it is necessary to avoid mistakes in the distribution of goods between company stores and the online store. We created an extension for CMS Magento, which exchanges stock data with a web portal. The web portal “knows” where and when a certain product will be needed. This allows avoiding mistakes in displaying the availability of goods in the online store.
Results
- The solution to this problem took us 6 months.
- The process of counting products in stores requires less time and effort, so staff members can focus on other tasks more.
- The solution that we have developed keeps track of the products that are already gone and places orders automatically instead of store staff.
- Regional managers have an easy tool to keep track of all product-related information and to control replenishment.