French apparel group Beaumanoir is working with Texas company SML to pilot item-level RFID to improve inventory accuracy and customer service in three of its Cache Cache stores in China.

Cache Cache has more than 1400 stores, with around 800 in China and about 500 in France.

SML has deployed its RFID Inspire tags and Clarity software to enhance store efficiency. It has been working with the Cache Cache brand in China since March 2019. The retailer determined that it needed to improve efficiency around its stock-taking process by reducing the time and labour consumption in addition to improving transparency around existing stock.

The retailer was also in need of data-driven analytics to analyse customers’ product preferences. To enable this, SML designed a pilot implementation and deployed RFID across three pilot stores using the Clarity software suite and ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID encoded tags.

During the pilot, Cache Cache has seen its stock-taking efficiency increase by 26 times. Overall inventory accuracy reached 98% across all three stores within the short timeframe. In addition, back stock receiving efficiency is now six times faster as a result of using the RFID technology.

Driven by the need to remain competitive and catch up with the in-store customer experience delivered by other retailers in the market, the Beaumanoir brand has also benefited from analytics to understand customer preferences.

“SML’s RFID allowed us to drastically improve store efficiency,” said Jerome Cambounet, CEO of Beaumanoir Asia. “From an in-store stock count efficiency improvement of 26 times and an overall inventory accuracy of 98%, I am confident that RFID is one of the technologies that can continue to help us improve store efficiency.”

To facilitate the project, SML worked with Beaumanoir to design and implement a pilot aimed at delivering an enhanced in-store efficiency and collect customer data to gain insights into product preferences. Following the pilot, Beaumanoir is considering rolling out RFID across 20 more of its Cache Cache stores in China.

“We started working with SML near the end of 2018 to pilot in March 2019,” said Matthieu Broussin, digital transformation project manager for Groupe Beaumanoir in China. “While the project is still ongoing, both teams have collaborated as partners where SML has demonstrated its global experience with other retailers to help us simplify the adoption process.”

Dean Frew, SML’s CTO, added: “We are seeing a consistent trend among retailers across the globe, where implementing item-level RFID is helping them innovate and remain competitive within this highly competitive market. Our project with Beaumanoir’s Cache Cache brand is a clear example of how retailers can use item-level RFID to improve store efficiency, inventory access and deliver a better customer experience.”

Beaumanoir operates four brands all over the world – Cache Cache, Patrice Bréal, Morgan and Bonobo.