Category: News

Detego takes RFID-based stock management to the next level with advanced localization capabilities.

Introducing ‘Smart Shield’ – Detego defies the laws of physics with breakthrough in RFID tag localization

London, UK, 04.04.2019 — Detego, the leader in business intelligence for fashion retailers, has released the latest innovation for their RFID-based inventory management software with a feature they call ‘Smart Shield’. This new technological advancement utilizes machine learning to determine the relative location of individual RFID tags, a feature which will drastically improve costs and process efficiencies for retailers implementing RFID.

Over the course of recent years, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been applied in many different business domains to solve, for example, the issue of monitoring stock. Retailers in particular use the knowledge of item locations to understand in which area of the store they can find articles, for example, the backroom or sales floor. By having this knowledge, retailers achieve optimal product availability for their customers through an efficient replenishment process. When applied correctly, RFID technology provides the benefit of up to 99% stock accuracy and on-floor availability. However, until now there have always been limitations with the ability to understand an item’s exact location, due to the long-distance read signal achieved by modern RFID systems. The most common “best-practice” methods that can ensure such high figures are currently known to involve a physical method of shielding between individual stock locations, whether this is using foil or metallic paint. However, this common and costly method of shielding has left retailers and Detego wondering what else could be done to lower the hurdles on the initial steps of the RFID journey.

Every individual RFID tag creates a specific time & signal stamp when it is read by an RFID reader – up to several times per second. By collecting this data and applying smart algorithms within their software, Detego takes RFID-based merchandise management to the next level by adding an additional location element. Within this tag localization initiative, Detego establishes their ‘Smart Shield’ feature which can be utilized with just a handheld reader. With this advancement, retailers will no longer need to spend additional time and resources to put up physical shielding. Instead, they can roll-out RFID projects at a fraction of the time and cost. A newly-published research paper exploring the potential of this ground-breaking technology will be presented at this year’s 2019 IEEE International Conference on RFID.

“When RFID was developed, the concept of individual tag localization was always considered as ‘the holy grail’. Our latest innovations around this topic with our ‘Smart Shield’ feature is on par with traditional methods like physical shielding. By removing this barrier, a much faster and affordable implementation into brick-and-mortar stores has been made possible. However, this is just one element within our far more general localization initiative that will bring a variety of exciting new features for our customers.” says Detego CTO, Dr Michael Goller.

Detego says the new capability to ‘localize’ specific RFID tags has benefits far beyond the ‘Smart Shield’ feature. Through the machine learning infrastructure in place that enables individual tag localization, Detego can improve store operations in the following ways:

• Replenishment advice and picking lists for e-com processes can be optimised through location-based sorting to make the process more efficient for the store associate when in the backroom.
• Staff will now additionally be supported in finding items to further enhance customer service.

“Utilizing the information about relative locations of items can drastically increase staff efficiency and business process efficiency across various functions relating to logistics, warehousing and retail. Together with features that will significantly lower the costs for a roll-out, retailers will experience an even faster time to market and will have the ability to enable franchise/wholesaler partners with full RFID capabilities at low costs.” says Detego CTO, Dr. Michael Goller.

Having pioneered and tested this exciting new technology, Detego’s ‘Smart Shield’ is now readily available as part of their global SaaS platform. The first retailers are already beginning to successfully utilise the new system, seeing an increase in process efficiency across both the backroom and the shop floor. But perhaps the biggest development enabled by the ‘Smart Shield’ is the greater ease with which retailers can now implement RFID systems in stores. As this relatively-young technology continues to improve, developments like the ‘Smart shield’ are further steps towards RFID becoming part of the status-quo in the fashion retail landscape, as advancements such as this discover new use cases for the technology whilst simultaneously reducing the cost and time required for implementation.

Every year industry experts, innovative trends and insights from leading vendors descend on the Javits Centre in New York City to create the world’s greatest retail trade fair. While innovative concepts were discussed during previous years, 2019 is the time for real solutions to be implemented.

Detego was positioned front and centre as part of the SAP partner village in booth #3426. For Detego, it was all about communicating our expertise and best practice when it comes to the implementation of RFID-based inventory management and consumer engagement solutions. Detego’s software is customer driven and has been developed through collaboration and understanding of how fashion retailers’ operations work. This approach was critical in advising retailers on their inventory management needs. 

Tangible customer experience improvements

If the customer is to come back to the store, the store must change fundamentally. A store needs to inspire: in the design and presentation of the product assortment, with digitally supported store personnel empowered to provide knowledgeable sales advice and service, as well as delivering on the brand promise. With the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI), consumers are able to really experience the entire assortment. Cameras can capture the gender of the customer in order to display specific articles on large screens – digital signage becomes a central element of the staging of a brand. The multi-sensory approach to address consumers using sound elements or visualised fittings on e.g. eyewear or garments, offers a quick product comparison but also supports the purchasing decision. Pictures taken directly in the store can be shared with friends via social media, thereby making it a memorable shopping experience.

Operational Excellence in the store: Single-Stock View

Operational Excellence refers to stores with high levels of article availability – comparable to mini-distribution centres. In the omni-channel business, retailers need a Single view of Stock across all of their stores, franchises as well as concession partners as consumers are not interested in channels, they await a frictionless shopping experience.

It is clear that exact inventories are a necessary basis for efficient omni-channel retailing and therefore, satisfied customers; the same applies to RFID technology for accurate stock takes and article management. Retailers demand solutions that can be implemented quickly for a reasonable budget. Ideally with the option to test it in a pilot store and the possibility to easily roll out over the entire store network and to expand across the entire supply chain.

The Detego booth had retailers getting a hands-on demonstration of the Detego InStore Lean Edition, a mobile app-based solution which provides a quick start into RFID-based inventory management of the store. The mantra of ‘keep it simple’ was often being communicated by vendors and retailers alike.

Artificial Intelligence comes in many forms

“Retail will adopt AI technology the fastest in the next three years,” Deborah Weinswig, CEO and founder of U.S. retail and tech consultancy Coresight Research. With numerous AI solutions on display, retailers will have to think long and hard about how they want to utilise AI for their business.

Some of the use cases we could see was in data-driven AI solutions to make accurate demand prediction, new product development, optimized inventory placement and transportation as well as more advanced technology being used in offline shopping. Detego, a leader in AI for fashion retailers was one of the vendors showcasing the use of AI in our Smart Fitting Room and Chatbot, to bridge the gap between online and offline shopping as well as providing retailers with new data such as ‘fitting room conversion rates’.

Beyond the horizon – New market development for RFID

NRF also previewed a look of what is to come, more specifically in RFID inventory management for retailers. Intelligent label provider, Avery Dennison, provided a first peek into sustainable use of RFID and fresh food management to reduce food wastage across the world’s food retailers. With continued developments in labelling technology and a strong business case, the opportunities within RFID and retail continue to make an impact on the industry.

To find out more about the event please contact events@detego.com

Image source: NRF

Retail software specialist, Detego, will showcase three of its software solutions at EuroCIS, taking place from 19 – 21st of February 2019 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Visitors to Europe’s leading trade fair for retail technology can experience Detego’s market-leading solutions for the fashion retail industry, including real-time inventory intelligence and pioneering IoT and artificial intelligence (AI) projects. The live demos being showcased will be part of an impressive booth setup (Hall 9, booth #C04) which showcases the future of physical retail stores.

For inventory management of the store, Detego offers the InStore Lean Edition which meets the demands of the fashion retail industry for a quick-start solution into the digital store. Offered as a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution with cloud hosting, retailers benefit from high inventory accuracy and consistent article availability at low cost. This is possible through fast and accurate stocktakes and automated replenishment processes, bringing long-term benefits to fashion retailers and most importantly, delivering quick results. The app-based solution can be active within hours and has a clear path of scaling to ensure rapid deployment and an easy functional extension to the Detego InStore Full Edition. “More and more fashion retailers are living by the mantra of ‘keep it simple’ for their RFID implementation which is exactly why we successfully implemented across the world the Detego InStore Lean as an ‘out-of-the-box’ SaaS-based RFID solution.” Says Kim Berknov, Executive Chairman of Detego.

The fitting room is the most important place in the entire store when it comes to purchasing decisions being made. This means that it’s crucial to provide support and additional services for customers. Detego’s Smart Fitting Room provides product recommendations, such as matching items available on the sales floor that can be brought directly to the fitting room by sales staff via a “call-to-assist” button. The customer can gain access to the benefits of e-commerce by looking up other products, checking for availability, reserving articles or having them delivered directly from the store to their home. Links to videos or social media feeds can also help. These value-adding services are what continue to drive consumers to shop in-store.

Answering as many questions as possible for shoppers through AI, Detego’s chatbot supports the sales personnel and bridges waiting times for customers until there’s a salesperson available for individual service. The virtual store assistant accompanies customers throughout their entire shopping experience and provides additional support in the vital decision-making process, such as making product recommendations and earmarking other popular items, bestsellers, discounted articles or product variants. The AI capabilities are not just limited to the chatbot itself, but also work continually in the background by communicating with other systems in the store. The chatbot checks the actual availability of articles and compiles data about customer types and their preferred article combinations and choices. As a result, recommendations become more meaningful and personal and only articles immediately available in the store are recommended.

“We want to introduce fashion retailers to solutions that support them in their daily challenges,” says Dr. Michael Goller, CTO at Detego. “We can show how fashion retailers can positively influence buying decisions and how a digital fitting room or a chatbot help in the sales process, as well as witness how several global fashion brands have successfully adopted the Detego InStore Lean Edition.”

Detego, a provider of innovative software solutions for the retail industry, will be showcasing the latest digital in-store solutions on January 13-15 at NRF 2019. Returning as a co-exhibitor on the SAP booth (#3426), Detego will display their RFID-based inventory management software and latest AI applications for retailers.

Detego has been complementing the SAP offering in fashion retail by utilizing IoT technology and providing SAP systems with real time data on item level. Exhibiting at NRF will be the Detego InStore Lean Edition, a new mobile solution for retailers, offering faster and cheaper access to the benefits of digital connectivity via an RFID based system. This solution allows fashion retailers to quickly adopt a “smart” replenishment process and carry out “intelligent” stocktakes, by starting small and scaling across the entire store network. Offered as a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) model with cloud hosting, retailers benefit from high inventory accuracy and consistent article availability at low cost. Detego’s software has already proven to be the most cost-effective and fastest to implement on the market with over 1500 stores running on Detego around the globe.

To complement their core product offering, Detego have also developed AI applications which benefit both retailers and consumers alike. Detego’s new digital assistant/chatbot can be used at any time on a customer’s smartphone to help provide more pertinent product information or recommendations, based on real-time data on actual availability and customer preferences. The built-in machine-learning and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of retail, which means that results get better and better over time.

Detego has also found opportunity within AI to help revolutionize the planogram. Since the manual maintenance of the planogram per store can be enormously time-consuming, Detego’s self-learning system adapts to possibly changing conditions and continuously optimises the individual planogram per store. “By optimising the sizing profile of individual items for each store and greatly simplifying the in-store refilling process, we provide retailers with tools that make it easier for them to plan and implement optimum product presentation and thereby help them to boost their sales.” Says Michael Goller, Detego CTO.

Detailed analysis by retail tech specialists at Detego has confirmed that the average retailer’s data is only about seventy-five percent accurate when it comes to knowing exactly what inventory is actually in stock at any particular time. The problem is often compounded by retailers continually managing stock across multiple channels and increasingly having to stay on top of consumer demands for up-to-the-minute, reliable information. Detego, which has been monitoring its own chatbot service that allows consumers to engage with retailers via their smartphones, found the most common enquiries to be about stock availability. It found data inaccuracies around inventory to be most of an issue in fashion retail where ever shorter product lifecycles, fast turnarounds of stock and multiple style, size and colour combinations can play havoc with the supply chain and in-store operations.

“Customers, above all, want instant and accurate information on product availability,” says Dr. Michael Goller, CTO at Detego. “If you’re shopping for clothes, you want to be sure of getting the exact size and style you’re looking for. But many retailers fall by the wayside here – their systems might tell them that a particular size is available; yet, there’s a one in four chance that this isn’t the case.”

According to Goller, continually relying on manual processes for something as vital to the retail business as stock – usually by shutting up shop once or twice a year for store or warehouse staff to do a stock-take – is madness. And especially given that smart technologies abound, including RFID and mobile devices which ensure continual monitoring and lead to near hundred percent accuracy and operational excellence in the stores.
Research by the University of Parma in Italy has shown consistent sales increases in RFID-managed apparel stores and deduced that “RFID item-level tagging is a powerful tool for improving inventory accuracy, which is a prerequisite for both omni-channel strategies and store floor replenishment from the backroom.”¹

Thanks to technology that helps increase the availability of products on the shopfloor – such as using wearable devices that rely on alerts and images to guide staff and speed up the replacement of missing articles and gaps on the shelves – the industry is starting to see a gradual shift towards more connected technologies in retail. IDC Retail Insights predicts that eighty percent of retailers are due to spend on visibility platforms powered by RFID and IoT² over the next few years.

1 http://bit.ly/2s2e2Gf
2 http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS43775418

Detego, market leader in real-time business intelligence for the fashion retail industry, showcases its innovative retail products at Whitebox – a digital experience space for various innovative in-store applications – in Future City Langenfeld. Retailers are introduced to new in-store technologies, test them and exchange their experiences with retail experts. With its innovative and beneficial in-store products, Detego perfectly fits into the concept of the Whitebox where the Detego InStore Lean Edition as well as the Chatbot Detega are showcased.

The Detego InStore Lean Edition meets the demand of the fashion retail industry for a quick-start solution into the digital store. With brick-and-mortar retail being under increasing pressure, innovative technologies play a significant role in regaining its former strength: Customer service that makes the difference – based on extremely high on-shelf availability and data accuracy in terms of inventory. This is possible through fast and accurate stocktakes and automated replenishment processes, bringing long-term benefits to fashion retailers and most importantly, delivers quick results. At Whitebox, fashion retailers have the opportunity to assess the Detego InStore Lean Edition, which is already successfully in use in over a thousand fashion stores.

In addition, visitors can find out more about the Chatbot Detega, the consumer engagement tool that helps increase sales. On request, Detega starts a dialogue on the customers’ smartphone immediately after entering the store, thus elegantly bridging possible waiting times. Consumers are already used to these services thanks to online shopping. The virtual sales assistant gives product recommendations, triggers cross-selling potential and increases retention time in the store. These are all features retailers will need in the future to make sure to keep their customers.

Frank Rehme, initiator of the Whitebox, Future City Langenfeld, wants to present visitors with a selection of innovative in-store systems and to give, in particular smaller retailers, the chance to digitalise their stores easily: “We are delighted to have Detego as a partner as their solutions bring much needed value to retailers quickly without much implementation time.  Next to a clear vision for the future of retail, practical as well as result-oriented application of digital technologies are very important to us.”

More information: http://futurecitylangenfeld.de/whitebox/

Detego, a market leader in real-time business intelligence for the fashion retail industry, is releasing its latest whitepaper, providing valuable information on the use of Internet of Things (IoT) in fashion stores. Titled as “The perfect customer relationship – How fashion stores leverage Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to put the customer in focus of all activities “, fashion retailers get a practice-oriented guide that highlights the most important aspects such as: Why should fashion retailers deal with IoT?, What problems could be solved in the stores?, What results can be expected? Retail decision makers need to deal with IoT if increased article availability, exact inventories, interaction with customers and operational excellence in the stores are set as objectives. The 35-page guide sheds light on the triangle of “customer”, “processes in the store” and “deployment of new technologies” and shows how the use of IoT benefits retailers and ultimately the customer. The whitepaper is available for download on the Detego website.

Detego discusses the various IoT technologies as a way for retailers to realize the perfect customer relationship. Based on customer’s needs, the practical tips are divided into 1. Self-service in the store: The customer as the main actor, 2. Brand Ambassador: The customer as influencer, 3. Co-Value Creation: The customer as partner and 4. Predictive Analytics: The Customer as creator of the future. All four subchapters describe what retailers can do to connect with the customer and enable an interaction in the store.

In addition, infrastructural prerequisites such as the optimal process support through IoT technology and in particular support for the sales personnel are discussed. With the help of IoT, retailers and their store personnel gain valuable data that is translated into recommendations for concrete action to take. In addition to the operational excellence in the store, it is primarily about the new shopping experience for the customer. The whitepaper reveals the formula for the perfect customer relationship, based on the right technologies and processes and shows how retailers can apply them to their business.

Download Whitepaper