RFID solves Vente-priveeÂ’s tracking needs
By Retail Technology | Tuesday November 5 2013
Flash sales online retailer selects versatility, speed and efficiency of wireless tracking technology offers tracking solution for increasingly complex sales circuit
Organising daily flash sales to over 19 million members requires a smooth logistics process to ensure fast-moving transactions are successfully completed.
So Vente-privee.com turned to Tageos radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to provide total real-time visibility and traceability to track goods as they move around the retailer’s increasingly complex sales production circuit.
Enabling supply chain speed and visibility
Every day the French online retailer organises 30 to 40 flash sales of global brands, from fashion to wine and computers, to cosmetics. At the start of the chain product samples from the brands arrive at the Vente-privee.com warehouses. The samples then move through a specific sales production circuit – the real value chain of Vente-privee.com’s business, which includes the logistics, sales, photography and samples’ preparation departments.
The circuit can involve up to 450 people in contact with the samples; and sample groups – a brand can send up to hundreds of samples to Vente-privee.com – are often unbundled and then re-bundled, depending on the article and the required preparation.
But, with the volume of product samples multiplying sixfold in the past four years, translating to growing numbers of samples circulating in the warehouses, Vente-privee.com’s time-consuming, manual barcode tracking method could not deliver the visibility and traceability the company required.
Compounding this challenge, the structure of Vente-privee.com’s sales production had become more complicated, increasing from one central warehouse to four different locations, including one warehouse dedicated to checking in and out samples, and more than 30 photography studios.
Real-time track and trace capability
Bringing visibility to Vente-privee.com’s circuit, RFID integrator Frequentiel was in charge of hardware integration and implemented Tageos’ EOS-500 RFID labels. The deployment was linked to Vente-privee.com’s information system by the warehouse management systems (WMS) specialist A-SIS, which developed the business application with the use of Frequentiel’s RFID middleware module.
The secure, fast reading of samples is an absolute priority for Vente-privee.com. With their ability to facilitate and accelerate the flow of samples around the sales production circuit, Tageos’ high-performing EOS-500 RFID tags were a good fit for these needs. And by reducing errors and sample loss, the labels resolve a top concern for the company. In addition, stacked or bundled readings take seconds, compared to time-consuming checks on barcodes.
At the final stage of the chain, when Vente-privee.com has all the elements – like photos and videos of the products – it needs to start the public sale process, the product samples are easily untagged and shipped back to the brands.
