Checkpoint Systems recently announced at NRF 2019 that it is expanding its relationship with Polish fashion retail group LPP with the deployment of a large-scale radio frequency identification (RFID) program to improve merchandise availability, operational efficiency and the consumer experience. The program will be deployed across LPP’s entire supply chain from manufacturing through LPP’s e-commerce platform and to over 1,700 outlets spanning 23 countries.
With more than 200 million items sold each year, LPP has created the biggest apparel manufacturing/retail company in Central and Eastern Europe. The socially responsible Polish family company was looking for a solution that would improve operational efficiency across its estate, while enhancing inventory visibility for its five high fashion retail brands: Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito and Sinsay.
Checkpoint already supplies electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology to LPP, and the new RFID @Source program will enable items to arrive in store shelf-ready, reducing the time store employees spend checking deliveries and enhancing inventory accuracy.
Introducing RFID technology is also expected to increase profitability through improved efficiencies, with early estimates indicating a 3 percent sales uplift. It will also improve the identification of single items in the supply chain, while also transforming product visibility and availability in store. The technology also enables LPP to easily pin-point top-sellers and key trends in individual outlets, meaning it will be able to tailor its inventory to individual stores and their customer base more accurately.
Checkpoint will work with LPP’s suppliers to ensure hard and soft RFID tags are applied at source during garment manufacture. To further improve the supply chain process, the retailer has also placed RFID tunnels in its distribution centers. These allow accurate checks on incoming and outgoing goods, with the latter ensuring the required merchandise is shipped to the correct store.
The flow of goods and reuse of Checkpoint’s RFID hardtags is also enabling LPP to achieve responsible production, as all of its tags can be repurposed within the supply chain. Recovered hard tags are returned to Checkpoint’s ‘Total Quality Management’ Refurbishment Center before moving to LPP’s distribution center or the retailer’s vendors to be tagged at source. Tagged merchandise can then be shipped to LPP stores for sale.
John Dargan, president at Checkpoint Systems, said: “We are delighted to support LPP’s vision to become the leading fashion business in Europe. Implementation of RFID technology will enable LPP to greatly improve on key operational efficiencies and improve the overall customer experience. We have partnered with LPP for many years and are immensely happy to have been chosen to support their growth over this period; we look forward to supporting their continued expansion.”
“The implementation of RFID is a crucial breakpoint in our activity. We are the first company in Poland and one of the first in the world which [has] decided to implement it. RFID will allow us to offer our customers tailored and more accessible choices, and give us a great support in the product management on every stage starting from the factory, through the distribution center, ending with a store chain. It’s a challenge which we want to meet effectively as in our opinion RFID is a technology of the future. The process is not easy since it requires huge organizational changes; however, we believe that this technology is worth the effort,” said Jacek Kujawa vice president, LPP.
