This article delves into the innovative application of smart retail solutions based on RFID technology within a large fashion brand group. Through a practical case study of the global cashmere industry leader, Erdos, this article demonstrates how an RFID hardware solution tackles the core challenge of real-time inventory management across multiple stores, increasing store inventory counting efficiency fivefold, and providing a comprehensive data-driven operational solution for navigating the fast-paced fashion retail market.
User Background
Erdos Cashmere Group was founded in 1980. Leveraging its full-industry-chain advantage, and after more than 40 years of sustained development, it has become a globally leading brand. The company owns numerous well-known brands such as 1436, ERDOS, Erdos1980, BLUE ERDOS, and erdos KIDS. It has an annual production and sales capacity exceeding 10 million cashmere products, holding a 40% share of the Chinese market and a 30% share of the global market.
Challenges
In the fast-changing fashion retail industry, real-time, accurate control of nationwide inventory information is key to responding to rapid product turnover and seasonal demand fluctuations. The core challenge faced by Erdos was: how to achieve efficient and precise digital inventory management within its vast retail network covering over 1200 stores, in order to support scientific decision-making and agile operations.

Before deploying the RFID solution, Erdos faced the following specific bottlenecks in the operation of its retail network:

• Severe lack of inventory visibility: Inability to synchronize inventory data from over 1200 stores nationwide in real-time, leading to inefficient and slow-response cross-store and cross-regional inventory transfers.
• Coexistence of inventory overstock and missed sales risks: Fashion trends change rapidly. Lack of accurate real-time inventory data for forecasting easily led to overstock of seasonal products. Simultaneously, inability to quickly locate stock sources often resulted in missed cross-regional sales opportunities.
• High operational costs: Traditional inventory management methods relied heavily on manual labor, resulting in low efficiency and high error rates in processes like inventory counting, item finding, and goods receiving, driving up overall operational costs.

By deploying the RFID hardware solution provided by SEUIC, Erdos achieved significant, quantifiable benefits in store and warehouse management:

• Improved inventory data management efficiency by 10%.
• Reduced product shrinkage by 10%.
• Increased store goods receiving efficiency by four times.
• Increased store inventory counting efficiency by five times.
• Increased in-store product locating speed by six times.

The solution adopted by Erdos is a retail store digitalization solution centered on the SEUIC AUTOID UTouch RFID handheld reader:

• Deployment of high-performance RFID data capture terminals: Widespread application of the AUTOID UTouch RFID reader in stores. This device enables rapid batch reading, allowing instant capture of information for an entire box or shelf of goods during inventory counting, product locating, and receiving processes, without the need to scan each item's barcode individually. This greatly simplifies operational procedures.
• Achieved end-to-end operational efficiency improvement: This solution deeply integrates RFID technology into the key processes of daily store operations. From rapid goods receiving upon warehouse arrival to real-time inventory counting and precise item finding during in-store sales, tasks are efficiently completed using the handheld reader. This ensures the real-time nature and accuracy of inventory data, providing reliable support for front-end sales and back-end supply chain decision-making.