Two Singapore Fashion Retailers Use RFID To Track Inventory
Featuring Keton Lee, director, SeeNow

Used with permission from RFID Journal, Inc.

Two fashion retailers in Singapore are deploying an RFID-based tagging system to manage their inventory, using handheld interrogators to capture ID numbers attached to garments for stocktaking purposes. Bella East Fashion Studio, located in central Singapore's Kovan Heartland Mall, and 77th Street Pte. Ltd., at ITE College East in eastern Singapore, are each using the system. Both stores report a reduction in stocking time from 12 hours to 25 minutes.

The deployments began as a pilot in March 2007, in which the retailers used Tracient Padl-R handheld RFID interrogators to obtain real-time stock visibility by tracking which items were on store shelves and which high-demand items needed to be reordered.

Like other apparel stores in Singapore, the pilot's participants had previously conducted inventory counts using a manual system. Employees had hand-counted items at the front of the store, and in the back room. Because it was so time-consuming, however, they only conducted such inventories a few times per year, says Keton Lee, director of SeeNow, a Singapore-based RFID solutions provider that provided RFID integration services for the pilot.