By now you know that optimizing omnichannel fulfillment begins with fast and accurate inventory visibility— and that Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is one of the best tools for achieving that. But if you haven't implemented it across the entire retail enterprise, you're likely leaving value on the table.

Tagging your products earlier at the source with RFID and connecting them to the right inventory management software will enable you to truly deliver a seamless omnichannel experience with fewer stockouts, markdowns, and frustrated customers — and that's just the beginning.

Here's a closer look at some of the benefits your operations stand to gain from leveraging RFID successfully across the supply chain from source to store.

Your distribution center fulfilled an order days ago, and they haven't thought about it since. But now they're hearing back from a store that what they received and what they ordered don't add up. Sound familiar? Order discrepancies from stores for inaccurate deliveries can add up fast, and finding a way to fix them starts with making your products traceable with RFID earlier on.

“Distributors and suppliers are getting chargebacks from Retailers, some as much as $5 million+ in fines,” said Umesh Cooduvalli, business development executive at Sensormatic Solutions. “Factories are filling orders, distribution centers ship what their data is telling them to ship, but there’s a discrepancy upon delivery that they’re not able to reconcile.”

So what gives?

Without a highly accurate item-level view, it’s tough to fill orders with the consistent accuracy you’d need to avoid disputes and missed selling opportunities. Tagging your products at the source with RFID Tags, implementing RFID use cases in DCs such as Receiving verification against ASNs, Pick-Pack audit in real time, and Shipping verification against orders, eliminates this issue.

By enabling your products with digital capabilities earlier on in the supply chain, you’ll be able to keep track of them at each stop along the way. When your products are tagged with RFID and connected to an inventory visibility system — a cloud-based solution from which you can view your inventory and see where each product is at any given time — you now have a single source of truth you can work from to audit, reconcile, and eventually mitigate chargeback claims. When you get all your products tagged at the source and outfit each stop along the supply chain with the appropriate RFID use cases, deliveries won't leave the door unless they're packed correctly.

Distribution isn’t the only link in the supply chain that can be fortified with RFID, however.

The e-commerce explosion along with the rise of new purchase options have placed increasing strain on retailers. From ship to store and buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) — or “Click and Collect” as it's known outside the U.S. — store employees are now absorbing fulfillment duties, with only a fraction of the tools available to their warehouse counterparts.

“Stores get their omnichannel orders for the day, but they don’t necessarily have the right tools to locate them,” said Jamie Kress, RFID and digital leader, North America at Sensormatic Solutions. “Is the product in the back room? On the sales floor? Off the rack in the fitting room? Many store associates only have an SKU to work with and a finite amount of time to find everything and put it all together.”

Left unchecked, this inefficiency can translate into lost sales in a number of ways. Customers who order an item online for in-store pickup only to be told it's out of stock, is a lost sale then and there. But the negative customer experience of canceling an order after showing up in person can cost retailers in the future, as well.

Today's customers expect a seamless omnichannel buying experience, and failing to deliver on the promise of an expected purchase, then, is just about the worst thing you can do as a retailer. Not to mention, with the emergence of even more online options like reserve online, pick up in store (ROPIS), failing to optimize omnichannel fulfillment could quickly hurt your brand reputation and cost you customers to an even greater degree than before.

Fortunately, RFID technology implemented from end to end across your enterprise, offers value to many stakeholder. With RFID, store employees no longer have to guess (or hope) that an item is in stock. Using just an mobile handheld reader, employees will get an accurate item-level view of your store's inventory, along with each product's location.

That’s because when you tag a product with RFID, you gain item-level details about each unique product. Now with just one or two smart-device-wielding workers, you can count 10,000 items in 10 minutes. For the average medium-sized store, that means it's possible to complete a full inventory count in just 30 minutes. And because your products were tagged earlier at the source, employees will have the data they need to see where items slipped through the cracks if they turn out to be missing.

Of course, the more you have RFID enabled from beginning to end across your supply chain, the less you'll have to worry about out-of-stock surprises. With a near perfect picture of your complete inventory available at every step, combined with the speed and ease of electronic counting, shipments won't arrive (or leave) your distribution center unless they're completely accurate to begin with.

It's not enough to just have digitally traceable, RFID-enabled products on your shelves. Tagging them earlier at the source, and deploying the relevant RFID use cases at each step in the supply chain, will give you the complete item-level visibility you need for seamless omnichannel fulfillment.

With a clearer picture of your products' availability, you'll be able to eliminate supply chain friction, reduce out of stocks, and keep your customers happy and coming back for more.

To learn more about how we can help you identify problem areas, scope a pilot, or deploy a new solution, connect with a Sensormatic Solutions expert today.