To manage their merchandise, Cleor had employed a barcode solution. The size of the jewelry necessitated very small labels with correspondingly small barcodes. Barcodes need to be in the line-of-sight of a barcode reader in order to be read, so reading them in the display window or grouped into a bag presented a challenge. Because of the jewelry value, large number of differing SKUs, and to comply with financial laws, sales associates had to take inventory frequently, a process that involved physically removing the jewelry from its spot in the display case, scanning the item, and returning it to the proper location. This time-consuming process lead to more handling of the jewelry than desirable (with resulting potential merchandise damage), and less time spent on sales. With only one to two sales associates per store, often one person would be consumed with taking inventory, adversely impacting customer service as well.
While investigating methods for improving inventory control, Cleor was introduced to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Impressed by the technology’s performance in the first tests, Cleor decided to RFID tag all of their products with the goal of improving logistics efficiency and accuracy across their entire operation including: