Nedap’s iD Cloud will be used to increase stock accuracy and optimize product availability within stores.

Nedap (AMS:NEDAP), the global leader in RFID solutions, has been selected by Woolworths to deploy iD Cloud. In a rollout that will involve 217 Woolworths stores across South Africa, Nedap’s iD Cloud will optimize stock accuracy and in-store replenishment on a large scale as part of the brand’s long-term strategic objective to sell more with less stock.

The deployment will see Woolworths’ Fashion, Beauty and Home stores benefit from the numerous value-driven features that form part of Nedap’s iD Cloud platform, its ability to create stock visibility across the value chain and to help streamline its in-store operations, while increasing on floor availability of its products to the customer.

Woolworths will significantly lower the time spent counting and restocking the sales floor, which will assist in ensuring high on floor product availability for their customers. The technology will also concurrently provide up-to-date stock levels synchronized with their ERP (Enterprise resource planning) system allowing them to attain very high levels of stock accuracy. The iD Cloud solution ensures Woolworths store staff receive refill suggestions that allow them to proactively replenish products from the stock room to the sales floor when needed. This eliminates error-prone manual checks, leading to missed sales by not having an item available on the sales floor.

Christie Koorts, CIO at Woolworths, comments: “We chose Nedap because our extensive market evaluation has shown that no other supplier has the experience they do. Nedap has a clear roadmap vision for RFID, driven through a partnership approach, supported by the technical ability that iD Cloud offers. We are excited to start this journey with them. RFID is an important strategic asset for us, and we are looking at adding loss prevention measures and supply chain enhancements in the future.”

Bruno Bakker, Director of Sales at Nedap, comments: “We are very pleased to start this long-term partnership with premium retailer Woolworths. With the large number of products flowing through their supply chain, it is crucial to have accurate insights into store stock to avoid them from being overstocked. By having accurate data, Woolworths can lower inventory levels without missing a sale and using the money that used to be spent on buying stock for further business optimization.”

This project has been realized in close collaboration with Nedap partner StegTech.