TAGSYS, Rica Lewis Deploy RFID Solution at Major European Retailers

TAGSYS, the leading provider of item-level RFID infrastructure, announced the deployment of its “RFID for Fashion” solution by Rica Lewis, the leading supplier of jean apparel to major European retail stores such as Carrefour, Auchan and Intermarché. The TAGSYS RFID solution provides Rica Lewis complete real-time visibility of its merchandise from distribution to the point of sale, enabling improved product availability and increased sales.

Rica Lewis sells more than five million pairs of jeans each year and has invested in TAGSYS’ RFID technology to increase its sales and enhance customer’s experience through improved product availability. Each sales manager from Rica Lewis is equipped with portable RFID readers, enabling them to perform rapid inventory of RFID enabled items directly on the sales floor of the retailer.

Initial results have demonstrated that the duration of the previously manual inventory process has been reduced by more than 80%, making the sales manager available for high value activities such as merchandising and customer interaction. At the conclusion of the inventory process, the RFID data collected is sent to the logistics center, also equipped with a RFID infrastructure, allowing for a much more efficient order preparation and shipping process.

With the use of RFID the entire supply chain is optimized to better manage processes in the distribution center and provide greater product availability at the point of sale.

“Thanks to the TAGSYS RFID implementation, our sales managers are able to spend more valuable time in the field with their customers and deploy new merchandising solutions, a key element of Rica Lewis’ shop in shop concept,” said Dominique Lanson, general director for Rica Lewis. “As a leader on the jean’s market, we are proud to be one of the first companies to deploy this innovative technology directly on the floor of the major retailers and take an important step towards greatly improving the efficiency of retail distribution.”

“We have been working in a close partnership with Rica Lewis’ teams for the past few months and this deployment is a result of close collaboration in integrating an end-to-end infrastructure solution tailored to the retail distribution application,” explains Didier Mattalia, sales director for fashion and retail at TAGSYS. “Deploying a complete RFID solution into a new distribution model, from a specific brand’s logistics centers to multiple points of sale at large retail stores, is a demonstration of the efficiency and applicability of RFID technology in all types of fashion and apparel supply chains.”

The TAGSYS’ RFID infrastructure for Rica Lewis includes printable UHF RFID tags attached to existing apparel labels, RFID printers to program and print data, RFID tunnels to quickly and precisely control inbound and outbound merchandise, portable RFID readers to perform rapid inventory, and fixed RFID stations to prepare and verify orders.