Earlier this month, Tyco Retail Solutions announced that its TrueVUE RFID Inventory Visibility platform is being used to power Macy’s “Pick to the Last Unit” (P2LU) program for omni-channel fulfillment of customer purchases. While this is great news for Macy’s, the brands it sells, and its customers, it might be even better news for the future of mobile marketing.
By utilizing item-level RFID technology, Macy’s is now confident enough to say that an item is available in its inventory, and is thus able to list the last item of a stock-keeping unit (SKU) for sale online.
This is not only going to allow the retailer to sell more products online, it should save them time and money by making it easier for employees to find the products customers request in the brick-and-mortar store.
It is also bringing us one step closer to the future of mobile marketing.
For example, if more retailers start to use this type of technology, it could allow them to efficiently and effectively offer the buy online, pick up in-store option to customers via the mobile web or a proprietary smartphone app. (For some retailers, the buy online, pick up in-store option would now be feasible. For others, the turn-around time could be significantly decreased.)
Having the ability to confidently let customers know that a particular item is available at a particular location also opens up many additional marketing opportunities for the retailer and the brands it sells.
What Exactly Is Macy’s P2LU?
According to the article on the Tyco Retail Solutions website, “As a customer-centric retailer, Macy’s omni-channel strategies are focused on providing a smart combination of iconic brands and assortments for customers to shop anywhere, anytime, and anyhow they choose. The retailer realized that brick-and-mortar stores could be their greatest asset for single unit orders, essentially functioning as robust and flexible “warehouses” to utilize the full assortment of owned inventory. With item-level RFID, Macy’s can focus on product assortment and service while using existing inventory to address fulfillment demands. Changes to inventory management supporting this omni-channel strategy have enabled Macy’s to reduce $1 billion of inventory from its stores.”
“Furthering that effort, Macy’s launched its unique P2LU program for omni-channel fulfillment,” the article continues. “P2LU attempts to ensure that the last unit of an item in any store is made available for sale and easily located for order fulfillment. Typically, retailers don’t expose the last item of a SKU to online purchasing because they don’t have enough confidence in their inventory accuracy or ability to find the item to make every unit available for customer orders.”
This point is really important to the future of mobile marketing.
As the article explains, “Macy’s now has confidence to fulfill customer demand even if only one of an item is left in stock.”
For additional details, you might want to check out an article written by Claire Swedberg that was posted on the RFID Journal website. It has additional insight as to how Macy’s P2LU program will help the retailer improve its bottom line.
What Item-Level RFID Can Do for Marketers
Being able to tell a customer that an item is available for purchase at a particular brick-and-mortar store is huge.
As already mentioned, it gives the retailer the ability to secure additional online orders by giving customers the option to buy online, even when there is only one item left in the retailer’s inventory.
Retailers would also be able to tell customers if a specific item is available for purchase at a specific location by making the inventory searchable on the retailer’s website.
A few retailers have been doing this already.
In his 2011 book, “The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile,” Chuck Martin points out that Steve Madden’s website has given customers the ability to check for item availability in its brick-and-mortar stores by geolocation for a few years now. (Note: From the information in the book, it is unclear whether or not Steve Madden is using item-level RFID to accomplish this. Given the fact that the retailer primarily sells shoes, some other process might be in place.)
However, other retailers couldn’t offer this option because it just wasn’t economically or logistically feasible. Item-level RFID technology has the ability to change that.
It could also help secure additional sales as more customers shop via their mobile devices.
Offering customers the option to search the mobile web or use a smartphone app to find a particular product in a nearby brick-and-mortar store can possibly be the deciding factor in making a sale.
Being able to target digital advertising to customers based on their need and location and then being able to tell them that the item that they are looking for is actually available for purchase at a nearby store is a potential game-changer.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Final Thoughts
As time goes on, innovative marketers will find additional ways to incorporate the ability to check for particular items in a brick-and-mortar store’s inventory in ways that we haven’t even thought of yet.
And, all this is made possible by using item-level RFID technology.
The fact that a major retailer like Macy’s is testing this technology is paving the way for other retailers in the future.
As the cost of this type of technology continues to decrease, other retailers will no doubt follow Macy’s lead.
As mentioned earlier, while this is great news for the retailer, the brands it sells, and its customers, it might be even better news for the future of mobile marketing.
Photo credits: advencap and Judit Klein on Flickr.
