Nedap’s !D Cloud software selected for first large-scale RFID deployment in the African retail market
21 Jan 2019South African value retailer Ackermans has signed a three-year contract with Nedap for the supply of !D Cloud, Nedap’s leading RFID software platform, to its 800 stores in Southern Africa. Ackermans is the first retailer in Africa to roll out RFID on such a large scale. The primary objective of this endeavor is to increase in-store stock accuracy in order to optimize replenishment processes from warehouse to stores.
Marius Jordaan, Operations Systems Manager at Ackermans explains: “We know that the on-shelf availability of our apparel items is crucial in our large-format stores. If a certain size is missing, we will lose that sale. We understand that RFID is the ideal solution to raise stock accuracy and to guarantee that the full size range is always available on the sales floor.”
Proving the business case
The decision to roll out Nedap’s !D Cloud software was preceded by a proof-of-concept at ten stores to confirm the RFID business case. During the proof-of-concept, weekly RFID cycle counts resulted in approximately 98% stock accuracy. This led to improved product availability and, ultimately, increased sales.
Helmuth Luttig, Commercial Director comments: “We knew that selecting the correct platform partner would be critical to the success of our project, therefore after extensive market research, we selected Nedap as our long-term service provider. Key reasons for selecting Nedap is their ability to scale, their cost-effective software, their extensive roll-out experience, and their community-based feature development program.”
Mark Kasbergen, International Business Development Manager at Nedap Retail, concludes: “What makes this RFID deployment unique is that, together with our local partner StegTech, we have successfully managed to build a business case for value retail. This project clearly shows the profound benefits associated with increased in-store stock accuracy. We are proud of our achievement as well as the learnings gained by signing up the first Southern African retailer for a large-scale, source-tagged RFID rollout in the region”.