The Many Ways RFID Is Transforming Indian Supply Chain

Consider these two situations

Your customer reaches the billing counter with their shopping bag full, and there’s a long queue to wait in.
Your customer walks to a self-checkout counter, places the products, pays, and leaves with the purchased products.

Which of these two situations are likely to result in good customer feedback?

Definitely the second one.

And this is how shopping in Decathlon India outlets in 2021 feels like. As one of the major sportswear and activewear brands, this French company sells over 600 million individual products. To offer convenient services through evolving technology, Decathlon now utilizes RFID technology to encourage a quicker self-checkout experience.

According to Statista, the global RFID market reached approximately 24.5 billion USD in 2020.

Why RFID?

Globally, supply chains are evolving technologically with the approach of Industry 4.0. Organizations are shifting from risk management to risk mitigation and are creating agile networks through disruptive methodologies. In the sequence of these emerging technologies to enhance supply chain resilience comes RFID technology. The global RFID market is expected to be 17.4 billion by 2026, rising from 10.7 billion USD in 2021.

Meanwhile, the Indian RFID market, currently valued at $523.7 million in 2020, is forecasted to reach $1864.5 million by 2030, as per the projections of Allied Market Research.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic waves to verify and capture the labels attached to products and stores this data for a faster and accurate supply chain management. The process of supply chain management also gets faster, more convenient, and free from errors.

Every item of the inventory in the supply chain management process is attached with an RFID tag. The RFID reader is installed at the entry and exit points of warehouses. The RFID reader registers the tag and updates the product status in the inventory. It can also strategically locate products and collect real-time updates for the database.

RFID technology has transformed the global supply chain in several ways. From monitoring to selling a product, RFID is finding numerous usages along with hastening the entire process.

Where is RFID commonly being used?

Just like Decathlon, Watasale is an Indian company that runs an autonomous, unmanned store with a ‘checkout-free’ experience. Located in Kochi’s Gold Souk Grande Mall, this retail store is inspired by Amazon Go outlets in the US. Shoppers can simply pick up the products and leave, while the RFID system helps in identifying the product, and money is debited from e-wallets.

Apart from creating a cashier-free retail shopping experience, RFID also finds its implementation in asset management.

Brands like Zara use RFID for inventory tracking so that customers can find all the details about their branded clothes from the available tags. This helps in tackling the counterfeit problem of the clothing industry while offering all required information. It also shows real-time inventory updates about when an item will go out of stock so that customers can plan their shopping accordingly. Zara is also using this technology to make the restocking process easier in their stores.

Similarly, Zara’s competitor, H&M revitalized its business process after suffering from a loss. They collected the required crucial data from RFID to improve sales and engage customers.

Numerous companies are experimenting with RFID to transform their supply chain, and this change is coming to India as well. But RFID is not just about self-checkout facilities.

Benefits of implementing an RFID system

Following are the benefits of implementing an RFID system:

Product identification is easier with RFID
Due to the auto-update of product information, overall productivity and accuracy increase at a comparatively lesser cost.
Data capture excellence is better with RFID.
Supply chain management through RFID enhances security, and also fights against asset forging.
RFID promotes higher customer satisfaction, thus generating more revenue.
The processing time is quicker, right from dispatch to delivery, as RFID integrates supply chain technologies such as pallet handling, inventory management, etc.
Inventory forecasting can be a forthcoming technology to improve the shopping experience, along with offering suggestions based on previous purchases.
With better asset tracking and management, RFID also enhances security as it offers full visibility of the inventory locations and levels, thus locating products easily.
RFID ensures that there is maximum accuracy and lesser chances of error.

Such great benefits establish the flexible and innovative nature of RFID, and the future definitely belongs to such agile improvements. With a sound supply chain strategy, Indian companies can bridge the global gap and restructure their organizations to serve their clientele well. It is a promising advancement to cater to the increasing demand for better inventory and supply chain management. RFID is indeed transforming the Indian supply chain, and it’ll be interesting to look at more of its competitive implementations in the Indian business world.

Are you putting your RFID system to full use? If you wish to implement a quicker and reliable RFID technology solution in your organization, reach out to us for further details.