One of the standard responses I hear from retailers regarding RFID implementation is “We know we need it, and we want it, but we don’t have the resources right now.” This is usually followed by “Next year, for sure” or even “Maybe in six months.” Adding to the rationalization for delay is the perception that their existing systems will have to be replaced or upgraded in order to support RFID technology. In reality, RFID can sit on top of any legacy system, at any time, and supercharge the capabilities of that system.
I’ve been on both sides of RFID and Retail, plus I spent many years selling and being sold to, so my experience tells me that “we don’t have the resources right now” is often business speak for “we aren’t ready to make the investment or the commitment….yet.”
My question to these retailers is “During that one year or six month period of delay, how much money will you lose to inventory distortion, theft, retail fraud and human error?” No matter what system you are using now, or what new technologies you add, without RFID to enable and enhance, the results are going to remain the same, lots of shrinkage, theft and errors.
The statistics are compelling. Inventory distortion cost retailers an estimated $818 billion annually and this figure is expected to increase by $50 billion each year going forward. Theft by shoplifters and organized crime rings continues to rise, costing the global retail industry $212 billion last year and totaling 1.4% of sales. Employee theft is up also, by an estimated 5.5% for the 2012/2013 sales year. According to the NRF, customer and employee generated return fraud alone will cost retailers $3.4 billion this year. And we haven’t even touched on human error.
As a retailer, if you knew how much you were actually losing each year by not having RFID in place, would you continue to see RFID as an “expense” rather than a strategic business solution?
Today, implementing a RFID program is simpler, easier and more cost effective than ever, thanks to RFID in the Cloud.
Like RFID, Cloud Computing has been around for a while, yet has only recently started generating interest and hype. The convergence of the two technologies brings strong advantages to you as a retailer, enabling you to get your operation up and running with RFID in a matter of days, and with minimal expense and labor.
The Cloud-hosted RFID offered by Truecount, for example, eliminates the need for you to invest in infrastructure—we’ve already done that— so the upfront investment is quite low. Think of it as moving into an office condominium, where the cost of the building, its maintenance, security systems and backups, utilities and taxes are handled by the condo owner. As one of the tenants, you pay a monthly fee for the amount of space (or services) you actually use. Your costs are under your control.
In deploying RFID, little is required from your IT staff, freeing them to focus on other aspects of your business. Truecount RFID in the Cloud is scalable, so as you grow, you can easily expand your services to accommodate the increased requirements.
The savings in the cost of deployment, combined with the operational efficiencies and shrink management gained once RFID is in place, help accelerate your path to RFID ROI.
According to Saugatuck Technology, a research and advisory firm, every business computing category will move to the cloud by 2015 – with 65 percent or more of all new business application or solution decisions either cloud-based, or a cloud-hybrid. The outlook for RFID adaption is equally impressive. VDC Research projects that more than 10.5 billion RFID tags will be in use by 2014, of which 3.4 billion will be used in retail applications. Chances are, your competition will be using RFID.
With RFID deployment and costs substantially streamlined by cloud-hosting options, can you really afford to wait any longer?
To learn more about Truecount RFID in the Cloud, contact us at success@truecount.com.