Keeping Count: Recent Episodes
Datascan
Stores often wonder: Why do shoppers leave without a purchase? According to Billings, there are four main reasons:
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Items are out of stock.
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There’s no one to help.
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It takes too much time to finalize the shop.
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It’s too impersonal of an experience.
The solution? RFID. RFID has been shown to improve the out-of-stock problem because it provides real-time stock levels, which is crucial to selling items at the omnichannel level. Additionally, supply management becomes faster with RFID and allows more time for the assistant/employee to help the customer.
Describing use cases, Billings explained how with an RFID loyalty card, a salesperson could gain data on the customer, like purchase history, sizing, and style as soon as they walk in the door.
Billings also described the exciting idea of a smart fitting room retrofitted with RFID technology. “You walk into the fitting room, let’s say the item doesn’t fit…the smart mirrors can show what sizes are available out on the floor,” he explained. “You can click an item and have an employee bring that to you without leaving the room.” Additionally, the room could show different color options on the shopper and accessories that go with the items chosen.
Clearly, this concept would vastly improve the customer experience with its personalization, integration, and efficiency benefits, and Datascan recognizes the exciting new uses of RFID technology.
Find more information about RFID by tuning into the series, visiting Datascan’s website, or connecting with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.
Remember the toilet paper scarcity? Yeah. That. What if we told you that could have been avoided or minimized? In the third episode out of this five-part series, Herb Billings, vice president of technology strategy at Datascan, dove into the effects radio frequency identification (RFID) has on the supply chain with host of Herb’s Hot Takes, Tyler Kern.
RFID has been around since WWII and, along with other drivers, provides inventory record accuracy at more affordable rates. Clearly, having this feature during the pandemic toilet paper fiasco would have helped companies prepare for the demand surge and plan accordingly. Because the supply chain is so fragile, it’s obvious that “big changes needed to happen,” according to Billings.
To try to avoid issues, retailers often prepare a safety stock, but this drives costs upward. Additionally, if the retailer did not order appropriately, they may wait extended times due to the backup of the supply chain.
During the pandemic, issues in the supply chain affected different items, such as bikes, fishing equipment, weight training equipment, and yes, toilet paper. But when process can’t meet demand, how does one manage the supply chain?
That’s where RFID steps in. Providing confidence in logs and records, RFID helps retailers remain flexible and confident in their decisions.
RFID can be applied at the point of manufacture and utilized within inbound and outbound audits at the item level. This provides “visibility, transparency and accurate stock levels” which “helps everything run smoother,” according to Billings.
One way Datascan is helping retailers avoid toilet-paper-shortage-like scares is through their partnership with Frequentiel, Europe’s Premier RFID company, and its Octoplus system. Find more information about RFID by tuning into the series, visiting Datascan’s website, or connecting with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.
In the second episode of this five-part series, Datascan’s Vice President of Technology Strategy, Herb Billings, spoke to host of Herb’s Hot Takes, Tyler Kern, about the benefits of using radio frequency identification (RFID).
Billings first discussed the four main use cases of implementing RFID: “It improves inventory record accuracy. It reduces manual labor time around inventory management tasks. You can implement it for anti-theft, and then display compliance — making sure you have one of everything on the floor.”
With the barcode system, most retailers are only checking stock biannually at best, which is becoming a big problem. “If you’re doing barcodes once or twice a year your average inventory record accuracy right before you count is somewhere around 35%,” Billings explained. With unmatched counts, this creates chaos for omnichannel and retailers.
Using RFID can alleviate a lot of that headache by allowing stores to count up to 40 times faster than traditional barcode counting. “That means you can actually count once a week if you like in your stores. If you’re counting once a week, you are going to be maintaining about a 98% or higher inventory record accuracy,” Billings said.
This technology will help ensure replenishment of stock is more efficient and on-time. Additionally, stores could even sell up to the last item while maintaining confidence in records and reducing safety stock. In fact, a study published recently showed a 4–8% increase in sales the more frequent counts are performed.
RFID use also allows users to reduce manual labor time, like using the data captured to analyze which products make it to the dressing room but never see the register.
Clearly, RFID technology has a myriad of uses. Find more information about RFID by tuning into the series, visiting Datascan’s website, or connecting with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.
While many have likely not heard of radio frequency identification (RFID), it’s likely most consumers are using it now. For instance, the newer ‘tap’ credit card feature — the one that allows you to skip the fuss of inserting your card into the credit card reader — is a more recent example of RFID technology. Datascan’s Vice President of Technology Strategy, Herb Billings, explained the current and future use of RFID technology to host of Herb’s Hot Takes, Tyler Kern, in part one of this five-part podcast series.
RFID is a “chip with a globally unique identifier in it and an antenna that can be read using radio waves.” While this technology may appear new, its origins start in WWII.
First developed by the British to help them distinguish friend and foe airplanes, it was later adopted for electronic article surveillance seeing much commercial success. Now in the modern age, RFID technology is found in everyday conveniences, like hotel door locks and vehicle toll tags, and many industries, including agriculture and retail.
There are two main types of RFID: active and passive. With active RFID, there is a power source, such as a battery, that delivers a longer read range. Conversely, passive RFID has no power source, causing a shorter read range.
Datascan understands the potential for this technology to continue growing, and retailers look to RFID to help improve their inventory management tasks, customer experience, and bottom line.
Given the future of this technology, Billings announced: “We are very excited to announce a partnership… with Frequentiel, Europe’s premier RFID company. They have a system called Octoplus, which is an industry-leading platform that we are marrying with our deep retail experience.”
Find more information about RFID by tuning into the series, visiting Datascan’s website, or connecting with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.
While many have likely not heard of radio frequency identification (RFID), it’s likely most consumers are using it now. For instance, the newer ‘tap’ credit card feature — the one that allows you to skip the fuss of inserting your card into the credit card reader — is a more recent example of RFID technology. Datascan’s Vice President of Technology Strategy, Herb Billings, explained the current and future use of RFID technology to host of Herb’s Hot Takes, Tyler Kern, in part one of this five-part podcast series.
RFID is a “chip with a globally unique identifier in it and an antenna that can be read using radio waves.” While this technology may appear new, its origins start in WWII.
First developed by the British to help them distinguish friend and foe airplanes, it was later adopted for electronic article surveillance seeing much commercial success. Now in the modern age, RFID technology is found in everyday conveniences, like hotel door locks and vehicle toll tags, and many industries, including agriculture and retail.
There are two main types of RFID: active and passive. With active RFID, there is a power source, such as a battery, that delivers a longer read range. Conversely, passive RFID has no power source, causing a shorter read range.
Datascan understands the potential for this technology to continue growing, and retailers look to RFID to help improve their inventory management tasks, customer experience, and bottom line.
Given the future of this technology, Billings announced: “We are very excited to announce a partnership… with Frequentiel, Europe’s premier RFID company. They have a system called Octoplus, which is an industry-leading platform that we are marrying with our deep retail experience.”
Find more information about RFID by tuning into the series, visiting Datascan’s website, or connecting with Herb Billings on LinkedIn.
Finishing up the series on retail returns, Herb’s Hot Takes looks at strategies to minimize returns in the first place. Herb Billings, Vice President Technology Strategy at Datascan, shared his insights.
Billings explained, “You want to decrease the likelihood of returns but not by making it a hard process. One way to address this is by considering that 65% of returns are actually the retailers’ fault.
There are several ways for retailers to improve the process. “Gather as much data as you can to find out why returns occur, study the results, and identify priorities,” Billings remarked.
In looking at the process, companies need to consider the phases of an item’s life and what can go wrong. It could be a design flaw, substandard material, workmanship, or supply chain issues. “The shipment to the customer can wrong as well, either by damage or picking the wrong item,” Billings added.
Many of those things are controllable with better processes, but they aren’t the only return triggers. As previously discussed, fit, feel, and color are leading reasons for returns. “Over describe the product; nothing’s too small a detail. A description may say machine washable, but the tag says only in cold and do not tumble dry.”
This lack of information could cause a return. Other aspects of the product page are critical, too, such as reviews and questions and answers.
Pictures, of course, are vital. “Pictures from every angle are helpful, as are short video clips,” Billings noted.
Technology is also playing a role in minimizing returns, according to Billings. “AR and VR are really going to benefit retailers. You can use AR to place a piece of furniture in your room or apply makeup to your virtual image.”
Another key technology is that around fit. “New technologies are helping consumers find better fit through measurement since there’s no true standard.”
Continuing the discussion on returns, Herb’s Hot Takes focuses on best practices for retailers when it comes to returns, featuring Herb Billings, Vice President Technology Strategy at Datascan.
Free and easy returns are now the norms, and Billings notes, “Retailers need to consider them as part of the purchase process, not something separate.”
The return policy of a store, if done well, can win the company a customer for life. If not, they’ll shop somewhere else.
So, what’s the best customer-centric approach to returns? Billings explained, “First, it’s important to say that two-thirds of online shoppers research return policies before purchasing. It needs to be easy to read and obvious. It also should be easy to find through the navigation of the website and app.”
Billings urged retailers to make it as painless as possible. “Include a prepaid shipping label for returns where appropriate. You also want to gather as much information as you can to improve the process but make it easy for the consumer.”
As far as where customers should be able to return, it’s all about convenience. “It’s whatever is the easiest for them, which could be shipping it back or returning it to a physical location, even if the item isn’t sold there,” Billings added.
Next, they discussed the impact of the pandemic on returns. “The process is longer because items must be cleaned. Contactless returns are more popular now, too.”
Retailers have the opportunity to make or break customer relationships with returns. “Your best shoppers are often ones with high return rates, so treat them well. If you attempt to minimize returns, you’ll also minimize your customers. For those returning items in-store, it’s a chance to convert an online buyer.”
In the second episode of Herb’s Hot Takes on Returns, Herb Billings, vice president of technology strategy at Datascan, talks about the what happens to merchandise after the return.
“About 25 percent of all returned items are thrown away, representing five billion pounds annually in the U.S. That has an environmental impact, and it’s a waste of resources,” Billings explained.
So, why would a retailer throw away perfectly good items? According to Billings, it’s simply a matter of numbers: “When the cost to restock is greater than expected profit… they toss it.”
Another avenue for returns is donation or incineration, which covers about 10 percent. Donation is a great outcome, but why incinerate? “High-end luxury brands don’t want to donate or throw away goods because it can degrade the brand, so incinerating makes more sense,” Billings said.
So, what about the rest? Those items do make it back to the shelf in one way or another. Billings shared examples like restocking of tools or hardware at home improvement stores. He also noted that 70 percent of high-end apparel goes back for resale.
The logistics of returns do pose a high cost for retailers. For those with brick-and-mortar stores, they prefer in-store returns. For those without, many have partnerships with brands that have physical stores, like Kohl's and Amazon.
The last possible channel for returns is liquidation. “Amazon has its warehouse. Walmart sells returned electronics online. There are also smaller resellers that take these returns and sell them on eBay or Amazon Marketplace,” Billings added.
Retailers are dealing with more returns than ever before. In fact, retailers can lose up to one-third of revenue due to returns. In this first episode of a new series of Herb’s Hot Takes on returns, Herb Billings, Vice President Technology Strategy at Datascan, provides the audience an overview of the current problem.
“Before online shopping, there were strict return policies to prevent or discourage them because they cost money. Online shopping changed all of that, and the quantity and cost increase every year,” Billings explained.
This issue is most prominent in apparel and footwear relating to fit. “70% of U.S. shoppers returned at least one item last holiday season because of fit,” Billings noted.
Along with fit, other common return reasons are feel and color. “What retailers are now realizing is that home is the new fitting room. Descriptions are often incomplete or misleading, and what does ‘soft’ actually mean?”
Looking at the problem from a macro-level, Billings cited the NRF annual study on returns. “U.S. consumers returned $428 billion in merchandise, representing 10% of all retail sales in 2020. For online, the percentage was 18. For apparel and footwear, it can be 30-40%.”
However, retailers must be able to make it easy for customers to return due to fierce competition. Billings explained that Zappos was a pioneer here. “They came out with free returns and including the return label in the box.”
Ultimately, consumers do pay the bill for this with increased costs for products. In future episodes, Billings will share strategies to minimize returns and best practices for retailers.
On this episode of Keeping Count, a podcast from the experts at Datascan, Host Tyler Kern talked with Gerry Meca, Chief Information Officer at Datascan. They talked about some of the trends in the industry and what they will look like moving forward.
Meca joined Datascan as VP and Chief Information Officer in March 2020. He previously worked with Dr. Pepper and some other companies and has seen firsthand the importance of inventory management. At Dr. Pepper, he got experience with Datascan technology and what goes into keeping track in a warehouse. He also got a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into inventory in retail environments.
When it comes to inventory at Datascan, one thing is paramount: “This may come as a surprise, but it’s all about accuracy,” Meca said. “The philosophy that we have is all about providing a retailer an easy-to-use, flawless device and software application for counting the inventory quickly and giving them immediate feedback on how well the store is post-count.”
Datascan is also looking to the future. With their technology and software, they want to tell how a store will do when they do the count. As part of this philosophy, they believe that stores should be counting their inventory with their own people.
“They count on them for cash, cash registers, credit cards, and other somewhat trusting aspects of the business, and yet inventory management sometimes falls to a third-party,” Meca said.
If you were told there would be no math, that’s a shame – because there’s a formulaic approach to ensuring your retail organization has accurate inventory records and is making the most of your opportunity to boost that bottom line.
To discuss retail inventory record accuracy and the formula you can use to calculate it, Herb Billings, Vice President, Technology Strategy at Datascan, is back alongside host Tyler Kern for another episode of Herb’s Hot Takes.
Many retailers are aware of inventory accuracy percentage – but it doesn’t tell the entire story. It can be misleading, because, as time increases between counts, system records become less and less accurate.
A monthly degradation percentage, then, can give retailers a clearer picture and equalize the timeframe between counts, delivering more actionable insights.
You calculate that monthly degradation by taking the inventory inaccuracy percentage (100% – inventory accuracy %) and dividing by the number of months since the previous count. Datascan gets a standardized month by dividing the number of days between counts by 365, then multiplying by 12.
While this method still isn’t perfect, as many factors impact the actual level of inventory accuracy, this monthly approach can help retailers be more informed between counts.
Herb Billings, Vice President, Technology Strategy at Datascan, is back alongside host Tyler Kern for another episode of Herb’s Hot Takes – this time diving into the measurable negative effects organizations can experience when they exhibit poor inventory accuracy.
Every retailer the world over is affected by inventory accuracy either positively or negatively. As we learned in the first episode of Herb’s Hot Takes, those retailers that pay close attention to their inventory and conduct accurate counts can realize significant bottom-line benefits.
However, the opposite is also true. There are five clear impacts of poor inventory accuracy – lost sales, lost customers, increased inventory costs, wasted labor and lower employee morale.
This is especially true in an age where omnichannel strategies are becoming more critical every day. Traditionally, retailers would either have an item or not, and they could potentially call another location to verify that an item is in stock for a customer to pick up there.
This manual verification hid the actual inaccuracies behind the scenes of many retailers – inaccuracies that the omnichannel world of today is exposing in droves.
Retailers can respond, but it takes a greater commitment to inventory accuracy and to leveraging data in a more insightful way to make it happen.
Herb Billings, Vice President, Technology Strategy at Datascan, is back alongside host Tyler Kern for another episode of Herb’s Hot Takes – this time diving into the measurable negative effects organizations can experience when they exhibit poor inventory accuracy.
Every retailer the world over is affected by inventory accuracy either positively or negatively. As we learned in the first episode of Herb’s Hot Takes, those retailers that pay close attention to their inventory and conduct accurate counts can realize significant bottom-line benefits.
However, the opposite is also true. There are five clear impacts of poor inventory accuracy – lost sales, lost customers, increased inventory costs, wasted labor and lower employee morale.
This is especially true in an age where omnichannel strategies are becoming more critical every day. Traditionally, retailers would either have an item or not, and they could potentially call another location to verify that an item is in stock for a customer to pick up there.
This manual verification hid the actual inaccuracies behind the scenes of many retailers – inaccuracies that the omnichannel world of today is exposing in droves.
Retailers can respond, but it takes a greater commitment to inventory accuracy and to leveraging data in a more insightful way to make it happen.
The accuracy of inventory can quickly degrade when it comes to retailers, particularly those with many stores. That makes inventory accuracy critical, especially considering that companies have invested heavily in omnichannel methods and adapted their strategies to meet consumer demand.
Herb Billings is the Vice President, Technology Strategy at Datascan – and he’s got some hot takes.
On this inaugural episode of Herb’s Hot Takes, Billings leaned into years of experience studying the impact of inventory accuracy on retailers to deliver his first hot take, which may open listeners’ eyes to the very real impact of poor inventory accuracy on a business’s bottom line and beyond.
Like any industry, retail is now being forced to reckon with an emphasis on data – and analysis of that data – unlike any we’ve seen before.
Retailers are in a position to understand more about their supply chain, customers, store experience, marketing and more than ever before, but they need solutions that can help them make the most of that mountain of potential insights.
From an inventory perspective, Datascan is ready with solutions that can help retailers do just that.
On this episode of Datascan’s “Keeping Count,” President and CEO Adrian Thomas once again joined host Tyler Kern, this time to tackle to ever-evolving world of retail data and analytics.
“Data in retail has been limited, prior to the last two to three years, to [point of sale] data, maybe delivery data and supply chain data, and, obviously, some inventory accuracy that we can provide,” Thomas said. “From the inventory accuracy standpoint, now – what we can start to show retailers is what is actually going on with their inventory in the store.”
Traditionally, inventory counts have been performed maybe once or twice a year, meaning that the data is only relevant for a short period of time. In the current retail landscape and as we turn an eye to the future, finding a way to determine more constant data and convert that into meaningful trends will be key.
Datascan can help, particularly as retailers attempt to overcome challenges with inventory counting, such as pure volume, returns associated with a boom in online shopping, and more.
Datascan is an industry leader in inventory counting, helping modern retailers navigate the plethora of supply chain, inventory, stock management and data-related challenges they need to in order to thrive in the modern retail landscape.
On “Keeping Count,” the company will help shape the conversation around those trends, offering leading insights primed to help retailers and more proactively and efficiently get their inventory under control.
This inaugural episode saw Datascan President and CEO Adrian Thomas join host Tyler Kern to introduce viewers to the show, talk about Datascan as a whole, and align his company’s mission with that of the show – to help elevate the way the world views inventory management.
“We’ve been in the business of inventory counting in retail stores [for 50 years],” Thomas said. “Inventory counting – and the importance of inventory counting – is changing. We have a lot of experience in the industry, and we feel that it’s a good time for us to start to share some of that and explore the relevance of inventory counting as retail is transforming.”
That transformation, accelerated by COVID-19, will lead to conversations around the impact of buy online, pick up in store, or BOPIS, curbside pickup, general inventory trends, the interaction between online presences and brick-and-mortar stores, and more.