In the field of global footwear and apparel, Decathlon is the one that introduced RFID technology earlier and is also the most representative brand in terms of application.

In order to have a deeper understanding of Decathlon's application of RFID, a reporter from RFID World.com visited a Decathlon offline store in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, and experienced Decathlon's efficient RFID retail service.

Decathlon is a sporting goods retailer from France. It was founded by Michelle Lehrec in 1976 and opened its first store in Pudong, Shanghai in 2003. This is also the first official appearance of Decathlon in the Chinese market. Before this, Decathlon had already carried out part of the domestic production business.

Decathlon is most praised for its entire industrial chain control model, which greatly reduces production costs, thereby ensuring Decathlon's competitiveness in product prices. According to official information, Decathlon Group's global sales in 2019 reached 12.4 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 9%. It can be seen that Decathlon's efficient industrial chain operation mode is still exerting its power.
Use RFID technology to complete product clearing instantly

The Decathlon store that the reporter visited this time is located in the European City of Nanshan District, Shenzhen. A few tens of meters from the Decathlon store is the famous IKEA hypermarket from Sweden.

At present, Decathlon has spread to 69 countries and regions around the world, and China is the second largest market in the world outside of France, its base camp. Usually Decathlon stores are of different sizes, and the products sold are also different. The area of the mall is generally between 1,000 and 12,000 square meters.

It is understood that Decathlon has introduced RFID technology since 2013. After years of development, Decathlon has now integrated RFID technology into various links such as warehousing logistics, retail and omni-channel sales.

After visiting a large circle of the mall, the reporter found that all the goods seen in the store had RFID tags, whether it was a large item with a price of thousands of yuan or a small item with a price of only a few yuan. The reporter had a brief communication with the Decathlon clerk. The clerk said: “At present, all the goods in the mall use RFID tags, and the self-service settlement service of the mall is also completed on the basis of RFID technology.”

Since all the goods in the mall are equipped with RFID tags, customers only need to throw the purchased goods into a box to realize fast reading and fast checkout. Because of the advantages of RFID wireless group reading, the summary of all product information can be completed in an instant, which completely eliminates the process of scanning and entering products in the supermarket.

There are more than a dozen self-service checkout devices in the entire mall. A little attention will reveal that the complete checkout process usually only takes more than ten seconds. However, as there are many older consumers in the mall, Decathlon is still equipped with three staff to provide timely guidance. Compared with the self-service settlement service that is common in supermarkets nowadays, Decathlon’s settlement time is significantly shorter and saves a lot of manpower.

Decathlon staff said: "The company introduced the RFID retail system to reduce the time spent by customers in the checkout process, thereby saving customers' shopping time and optimizing the shopping experience."

Decathlon efficient supply chain management
Although, simplifying the checkout process can indeed bring benefits to consumers' shopping experience. However, the author believes that this is not the key to Decathlon's success in the market. Optimizing inventory and supply chain management is closer to the core of its strong competitiveness.

In order to improve the efficiency of inventory management, Decathlon combined RFID and AGV robots in the warehouse inventory link, and finally made the picking work improved by 2 to 3 times. With RFID's flexible inventory management capabilities for timely replenishment, warehouse operation efficiency has been greatly improved. Therefore, the RFID system is a strong support behind Decathlon's efficient supply chain.

Before using RFID, workers need to scan the barcode to confirm whether the product is correct, and then enter the data. The entire process takes about 12 seconds. RFID simplifies this link, shortens the entire process to less than 3 seconds, and greatly improves the accuracy of sorting. Although the difference between the two operations is less than 10 seconds at first glance, the time saved after the super-high repeatability is accumulated is very considerable.

From November 5th to 10th, 2019, Decathlon appeared at the 2nd China International Import Expo and launched the world's first RFID inventory smart robot "Dibao" at this exhibition, which attracted great attention from the industry.

It is understood that this "Dibao" robot is mainly used in physical shopping malls. By carrying RFID and artificial intelligence technology, it can realize automatic inventory of all products. "Dibao" has functions such as unmanned and no-light fully automated inventory, autonomous navigation and map scanning, and real-time update of electronic maps. According to Decathlon officials, it plans to promote "Dibao" to more than 200 shopping malls in China in 2020.

As the world's largest retailer of sports and leisure products, behind Decathlon's rapid expansion is its continuous investment in RFID technology in logistics, retail and omni-channel marketing, as well as its exploration and innovation in RFID application models.

Zhang Yue, President of Decathlon Greater China, once publicly stated: “In order to achieve fun, fast and simple physical stores, these goals cannot be achieved without three important driving forces: technology, relationship and experience.” In recent years, Decathlon has spared no effort to promote RFID technology The landing is the fruit of flowering under this concept.

With the in-depth development of the Internet of Things, RFID technology has gradually penetrated into all walks of life. The introduction of RFID not only improves operational efficiency, but also brings new business models, leading us into a more intelligent data era.