.png)
Black Friday sales are anticipated to continue their upward trajectory, owing to shrewd retailers and shoppers who can't resist a good bargain. Having established itself as the traditional curtain-raiser to the onslaught of the festive shopping season, the event seems to gain in popularity each year, among both online and in-store customers. According to the National Retail Federation, 88 million US customers bought items online during last year's Black Friday event, while 66.5 million purchased in-store.
Black Friday is a fantastic opportunity to gain new consumers and increase revenue. It allows retailers to offer rock-bottom pricing on overstock inventory as well as doorbusters and discounts on seasonal products. Retailers frequently provide significant discounts on big-ticket products and top-selling brands to entice shoppers into purchasing higher-margin goods once in store. While online sales channels were marginally more profitable last year, it is apparent that retailers must be able to strike a balance between online and offline sales channels in order to fully capitalise on the event.
Today's customers demand options and an elevated customer experience, whether they buy purely online, in-store, or a combination of the two such as buying online and picking up in-store (BOPIS). Retailers must cater to this demand if they are to edge out the competition ahead of this year’s event. When planning and preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it is critical to do a holistic analysis of all issues that businesses face when selling products both digitally and in-store, some of which include limited inventory, shipment delays, and labour shortages. Technological developments, such as the deployment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which is characterised as the wireless use of radio frequency waves to transmit data and identify items, can alleviate these pain points.
Stack Them High, Let 'em Fly
By employing RFID, retailers can easily track stock levels in seconds, allowing a business to identify individual products and components, and trace them throughout the supply chain from production to point-of-sale. This enables brands to maintain order fulfilment and make better decisions throughout the supply chain during a hectic Black Friday event. Adopting this innovative technology eliminates the need for manual inventory counts, allowing employees to deliver better customer service. When employees are aiding consumers, their guidance, discourse, and overall warmth may transfer into a better shopping experience, particularly throughout the holiday shopping season.
RFID tech provides an array of benefits, multiple tags can be read at once, from a distance of several meters allowing an entire pallet load of items to be inspected at the same time. The data linked to the tags may be changed remotely, allowing information on items to be updated in real-time, such as when they are moved from one area of a store to another. RFID may also be used to avoid overstocking or understocking a product. They assist in quality control, especially if you sell products with a short shelf life, as well as stock control, by placing tag readers at high-risk areas such as exits.
By converting from barcodes to an RFID system, retailers can now conduct bi-monthly stock counts, resulting in inventory accuracy of 93%-99%. Prior to RFID, inventory was often only taken once or twice a year, resulting in stock accuracy of less than 60%. RFID technology enables real-time inventory and location data to flow seamlessly from supplier to customer and back again. Retailers can avoid out-of-stock situations, improve customer confidence, and increase sales during Black Friday, by adopting a system to precisely track inventory.
Change Before You Have To
There has never been a greater emphasis on the consumer experience (CX). Meeting customers' expanding demands and delivering a gratifying CX necessitates a flexible strategy that leverages technological improvements to create a retail journey that seamlessly interacts with their lifestyles, making life easier, better, and more meaningful. It's a vital approach for any brand looking to fulfil rising customer demand over the holiday season. To satisfy consumer demand, it is necessary to be able to pivot quickly from inventory stock to delivery. According to an Elastic Path study, 75% of consumers expect same-day delivery and 72% are expecting to be able to order online and pick up curb-side.
Utilising the right technology, retailers can remain responsive to ever-changing customer requirements and adapt to remain competitive, not only for this festive shopping season but for long-term success. By employing RFID tags, retailers are empowered to track inventory, avoid manual scanning, and implement a tagging system at the item level to further ensure stock accuracy. This is important because retailers who implement RFID in conjunction with omnichannel experiences report a 20% higher ROI compared to those who have paired RFID technology with a single sales channel.
Striking The Balance Between Online And In-Store
Through omnichannel retail, merchants aim to provide customers with a seamless experience whether a customer purchases something from a traditional retail store or online. The implementation of omnichannel retail can be complicated but is simplified and enabled by the introduction of RFID technology, which provides the amount of supply chain visibility required. This multi-channel approach allows the customer to do their product research online, and reserve their purchase, then collect the product in-store rather than wait for delivery. Conversely, the consumer may use the omnichannel offering to browse and purchase products in-store, and then have the products shipped to their home. Customer satisfaction can improve when you anticipate and respond to the customer's needs more quickly. Employees who fully utilise the same RFID technology across all platforms assist in creating a more efficient and seamless retail experience during the festive shopping season.
Comments