Radar Brings Its RFID Magic to American Eagle
Radar is starting to ping.
The New York-based tech company revealed that it has raised $50 million to date and signed on American Eagle, which will start using its combination of computer vision and RFID in about 500 of its stores over the next year.
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Radar’s system uses four cameras and RFID in conjunction to track inventory in a store with pinpoint accuracy, helping store associates know what they have on hand and get right to the proper size and style for shoppers.
RFID, or radio frequency identification, has been around for years, but hasn’t been applied quite so precisely and has often left associates to hunt for specific stock keeping units when they’re needed.
Knowing where everything is will also help stores be more efficient as they replenish their stocks.
Michael Rempell, executive vice president and chief operating officer of American Eagle Outfitters Inc., teased the partnership on a conference call with analysts earlier this month.
“We will start rolling out an innovative RFID and AI-based technology capability across our stores later this year,” Rempell said. “Our pilot test this holiday proved highly successful, providing visibility into inventory availability and placement at over 99 percent accuracy. I’m very enthused about the sales opportunities, inventory productivity improvements and labor efficiencies we can unlock moving forward.”
The technology might just bring retail closer to a world where shoppers can go into a store, choose a look and walk out, paying automatically.
Spencer Hewett, founder and chief executive officer of Radar, said that getting stuck in a checkout line was part of the inspiration behind the company’s founding.
“We’re starting with inventory right now,” Hewett said. “Inventory management is top of mind for every retailer right now.”
But a much more automated checkout process is “on the roadmap,” he said.
“We’ve proven the core technology to get there and it’s incremental improvements from here in terms of latency that will get us there,” he said. “It’s going to be super interesting. Right now, we’re investing to scale the team to support the additional pilots that we’re in right now as well as the other retailers that would like to pilot us.”
The $50 million in funding has come from investors such as Align Ventures, Sound Ventures and Founders Fund, as well as some of the backers behind Michael Kors and other leading brands.
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