European fashion brand MS Mode deploys RFID technology in 185 retail stores to enhance consumer experience

MS Mode is launching a solution in 185 stores to understand the inventory level of each store, so as to better serve online customers and provide them with offline appointments to try on the products selected in the online store .

MS Mode, a European fashion brand under Cool Investments, plans to deploy an RFID solution to improve inventory accuracy. The solution will be used to track goods in its 185 stores. This technology will initially be launched in three stores and will be put into use in all stores by October 2021. Nedap's iD Cloud solution is mainly used to ensure that each of its stores can retrieve inventory to meet the omni-channel sales needs during and after the epidemic.

MS Mode hopes to use this technology to better serve online customers, allowing customers to place orders at the nearest offline store based on the principle of proximity. At the same time, it allows customers to check the products in the store in advance before visiting the offline store, and then book a try-on or purchase these products. Once the solution is fully deployed at the end of this year, it will become what Nedap calls the largest RFID promotion project in the three Benelux countries.

Robert Jan Haitink, project manager of MS Mode, said that MS Mode customers have become omnichannel shoppers. Before the epidemic broke out, more and more consumers had started shopping online, and they would browse products in the online store before going to the store to try on. During the epidemic, online shopping behavior has undergone further changes. Customers will not only browse products online before reaching offline stores, but also directly purchase. Heitink said that with the relaxation of lockdowns across Europe, customers will soon patronize offline stores, and the social nature of shopping is still a major driver of store traffic.

MS Mode's stores are located in the Benelux region, as well as France and Spain. During the epidemic, according to the regulations of various countries, stores are either temporarily closed, or the number of customers is limited, or customers can make appointments for shopping, which has a significant impact on passenger flow. Heitink said: "Fortunately, more and more customers are shopping online in our online store. We will do our best to continue to serve customers and ensure as much safety as possible during this difficult period."

Heitink also said that with the end of the epidemic, MS Mode expects that online shopping will continue to maintain a strong momentum, because customers are now accustomed to browsing the Internet in advance, so customers who come to offline stores will know themselves better than ever. Demand. In fact, before the outbreak, the company planned to deploy RFID to improve inventory accuracy. He recalled that the application of RFID technology began about five years ago, when MS Mode began to cooperate with Nedap on the business case. By labeling each piece of clothing, retailers could track the inventory of each item, thereby reducing shortages. The risk of the goods.

Another Cool Investments brand, Dutch fashion retailer America Today, has been using RFID to track inventory. Based on its successful experience, MS Mode now chooses to promote this technology without piloting it. The launch will start with three stores to conduct early testing of some processes and procedures so that store personnel can easily adapt to the technology of the entire company. Heitink said: "We hope to apply these experiences to all our stores."

采用的解决方案模式包括Nedap女士的我D Cloud standard package, handheld readers and passive UHF RFID tag tags. In order to uniquely identify each product, the label is affixed to the product when the product is produced, and then read when the product arrives in the store. Bruno Bakker, Nedap's global business development manager, said that each site is equipped with a handheld iD reader to read tag data.

When the tag is read, the iD Cloud cloud platform will update the status of the product received in the store. Then, the system forwards these data to the MS Mode application developed by the brand, according to the algorithm to accurately determine which inventory should be sent to which stores and channels when. The tags are also read during weekly inventory and store receipt.

In addition, Buck said that the replenishment function in iD Cloud will enable store employees to replenish their sales areas based on the available inventory in the warehouse and provide priority replenishment recommendations. iD Cloud uses a self-learning algorithm to generate replenishment recommendations, and can also take into account the size stock situation observed in the designated store. For example, if the sales of a product of size M increase, the system will remind the salesperson to store more products of this size in its sales area.

Heitink said that for MS Mode, inventory visualization will be able to adapt to changing consumer expectations. "Reliable warehouse management is a prerequisite for success." He explained: "Our goal is to allow customers to see the supply of goods in stores in the near future and provide them with booking opportunities. We believe that only inventory is available. Reliability can help achieve this goal and avoid disappointing our customers because there is no product."

Heitink pointed out that MS Mode hopes to use RFID technology to display store inventory online to help offline customers. This feature will enable the shops shopping guides to provide personalized services to ensure that customers can find the products they want to buy. MS Mode also hopes to achieve higher operational efficiency, thereby improving the customer experience.

The main goal of MS Mode is to make the RFID system run in all its stores. MS Mode will explore whether RFID can be deployed in its distribution center to realize the automatic receipt and storage of goods. Heitink said: "In the near future, we will study whether we can improve the customer experience by using smart mirrors, mobile payments and self-checkout, and whether we can use RFID to enhance loss prevention."

The plan started in the Benelux market and will be rolled out in stores in other countries. The first batch of deployments is expected to be put into use in September 2021 and will be fully launched in November. Nedap will provide training for store managers and employees through its "trainer" concept. In this model, Nedap cooperates with what it calls the "Champion Store", using the technology of the first three stores to provide training, and then the team trains the entire company. "After this, Buck said, Champion Store will train regional stores, and regional stores will train other stores in their own district.