Inadvertently selling products that aren't in stock, slow fulfillment, and misspicks are just a fraction of the stress involved in operating retail e-commerce. Despite your best efforts, it can feel like there's no escaping these challenges. However, it’s estimated that by 2040, 95% of purchases will be made online, so it's crucial to overcome and smoothly navigate these retail e-commerce challenges. In this blog, we’ll guide you through the pain points and how to tackle them using technology.

Current Struggles in Retail eCommerce Operations

Retailers have long been grappling with immense challenges, from managing flawless inventories across multiple locations to meeting customer expectations. As e-commerce gains traction, it has become imperative for retailers to maintain an online presence. This shift brings its own unique set of challenges that retailers must learn to manage

Common Pain Points

Inefficient Inventory Management: Ensuring full transparency and accuracy between records and the real scenario is more crucial than ever. Unlike brick-and-mortar retailing, in e-commerce, you can accidentally sell items you don’t have. This not only requires extra effort to handle returns and refunds but also severely damages the brand reputation and customer experience. If a customer buys something you don’t have, they will find it hard to trust you in the future.

Poor Customer Experience Due to Stockouts and Delays: Customers who visit your site expect stock to be available. There's no point in listing thousands of items online if they’re all marked as sold out or only available in limited sizes. Additionally, failing to meet promised delivery times can be extremely frustrating for customers who rely on timely deliveries.

High Operational Costs and Resource Wastage: E-commerce operations can be costly due to the volume of shipments, single-destination shipments, and returns. Unlike physical stores where customers try items on before buying and return them in person if needed, online shoppers buy, try on, and return items via delivery, increasing operational costs.

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The Impact on Business

These challenges significantly impact every retailer operating online, leading to revenue loss, decreased customer loyalty, and competitive disadvantages. Simply put, if your competitors offer a better customer experience, faster delivery, and greater online stock availability, they will win more loyal clients.

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Can RFID be the solution?

Streamlined Operations

RFID offers a quick and effective solution for improved inventory management. By tagging each asset with an RFID tag, you can swiftly scan items to conduct inventory counts, validate shipments, track movement, and locate items. This simplifies tracking, resulting in improved accuracy, findability, and efficiency. With RFID, e-commerce businesses can count stock on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, avoiding discrepancies.

Improved Customer Experience

High accuracy allows you to provide customers with what they want, when they want it, and where they want it, enhancing the customer experience. This accuracy also enables you to sell all your stock down to the last piece. Additionally, RFID significantly reduces the time needed for item searches, speeding up the picking and packing process, and resulting in faster fulfillment. Fast delivery is key to winning online shoppers' hearts.

Cost Efficiency

By reducing manual work to a minimum using RFID, you can lower labor costs for ongoing operations. RFID’s high accuracy rate also minimizes errors and losses, preventing revenue loss.

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The Long lasting Benefits of RFID

RFID can solve multiple operational issues in your e-commerce environment and brings long-lasting benefits that enable future improvement.

Operational Ease

RFID helps automate time-consuming manual tasks, easing daily operations in retail and e-commerce and reducing operational costs. This allows businesses to better allocate resources.

Sustainable Growth

Once you have your basic setup, you can enhance your ability to scale. Smooth operations and ongoing customer satisfaction can increase sales and customer loyalty.

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RFID technology can transform your retail e-commerce operations. By improving inventory management, enhancing customer experience, and cutting costs, RFID helps you stay competitive and meet the demands of online shopping. Start using RFID today to navigate and overcome e-commerce challenges, ensuring your business thrives.