Since installing Truecount's RFID solution at two stores this summer, and at the third site in September, Danier Leather believes it can reduce inventory count times from about 15 hours to less than one, according to Phil Cutter, the retailer's vice president of information technology and chief technology officer. But his company's greatest priority, Cutter says, is to improve the rate and accuracy of replenishment on the sales floor. The company sells its own line of high-value leather goods, such as jackets, purses and briefcases. If the items on the sales floor are replenished from the back room in a timely fashion, he notes, that lack of replenishment could lead to a loss of sales.
Danier operates 90 stores, including outlets and mall sites, with the volume of sales varying at each location. Across all of its stores, the company already has a very low shrinkage rate, Cutter says, largely because it conducts regular inventory counts at each site. Some counts are carried out as often as once weekly, while others are performed once a month or twice annually. The process is time-consuming, however, and does not provide a view into how quickly sales-floor inventory is replenished from the back room. With the Truecount system, says Bryan Tatoff, Danier's senior vice president, chief financial officer and secretary, "as soon as an item is sold, we receive a replenishment list," which is then displayed at the point of sale and on a back-room computer monitor.
