The Annual Nightmare: 2-Day Store Closures
Physical inventory counts are the nightmare of retail. For a brand with 3,000+ SKUs across multiple retail locations, a full stocktake meant pain on every level.
- Store closed for 1-2 full days — lost revenue during every count
- Scanning every tag individually with a barcode scanner — high labor, slow
- Human error from fatigue — low accuracy on long counting days
- "Ghost stock" — system says in stock, shelf is empty (counted only once a year)
Because stocktakes were so painful, they were only done once a year. This meant the team was flying blind on actual inventory for most of the year, leading to "ghost stock" that frustrated online customers expecting items to be available.
Walk Past the Racks. Done.
The retailer deployed Fulfil-IT RFID. They tagged their entire inventory with UHF RFID stickers (costing cents per tag) and equipped staff with handheld RFID readers connected to the Fulfil-IT app.
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1
Tag Items
Attach RFID stickers to each product during receiving. Each tag is mapped to a Shopify product variant.
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2
Wave the Reader
Staff simply walk past the racks waving the RFID reader. It captures hundreds of items per second, even inside folded stacks or boxes.
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3
Review Discrepancies
Discrepancies are highlighted instantly on the screen — missing items, unexpected items, and quantity mismatches.
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4
Sync to Shopify
Approve the adjustments and Shopify inventory is updated automatically. Every change is logged.
Weekly Counts, No Store Closures
A full store count of 3,000 units now takes just 45 minutes. Stocktakes went from an annual event requiring store closure to a weekly routine done before the store opens. Inventory accuracy sits at 99.8%, drastically reducing "Out of Stock" disappointments for customers.
“We used to close the store for two days to count stock. Now we do it before the store opens in the morning while drinking coffee.”— Retail Manager