The key beneficiary of better inventory management is the retail shopper. Better inventory accuracy leads to better shelf availability of the items needed by the customer. Studies show that people are not negotiable in their purchase of a few key items. If the store fails to maintain stock of those items, they risk losing the customer altogether because they will go somewhere else to make their purchase. Retailers have been driven to a system where bi annual physical inventories are supplemented with time consuming, tedious cycle counts by their staff. ARS can increase inventory accuracy to 95% or better while simultaneously offering a 90-96% reduction in time to cycle count. For stores such as Wal-Mart, J.C. Penney, Macy’s and Dillard’s, this is a significant paradigm shift. It is now possible for the stores to conduct a weekly inventory in less time that it took them to conduct 2 full inventories a year. RFID will enable retailers to set a cycle counting strategy period. ARS offers tools to define cycle counting based on turns and shrinkage for various product categories. The benefit is elimination of stock outs of product categories with high SKU counts such as apparel and books leading to improved revenue and customer satisfaction.
