Retail Tech: Foot Locker Expands Nedap RFID, Simon x Dropit

Glenn Taylor
·10 min read

The weekly Retail Tech Roundup compiles technology news across the supply chain, manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, logistics and fulfillment sectors.

RFID

Foot Locker/Nedap

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Foot Locker has extended its partnership with RFID solutions provider Nedap, deploying the Nedap iD Cloud to stores in Eastern European. The project now involves over 650 European stores.

Since 2018, Foot Locker has streamlined inventory management with the iD Cloud platform. By using RFID-tagged merchandise from brands such as Nike, Adidas and Puma, Foot Locker has reported longer-term inventory accuracy, leading to improved stock availability and reduced stock-outs. 

Specifically developed for retail RFID applications, iD Cloud helps stores to improve their in-store stock accuracy to over 98 percent by improving how staff track and manage their inventories. This level of accuracy enables Foot Locker to offer customers an improved omnichannel shopping experience and explore new potential RFID use cases such as supply chain and loss prevention. In addition, RFID data helps Foot Locker to comply with brand regulations.

“Brands we work with are very strict when it comes to displaying merchandise. In the case of exclusive, limited-edition footwear, timing is crucial,” said Niek Philipsen, director innovation at Foot Locker in a statement. “The iD Cloud App tells our store teams exactly which items should be displayed and when. This way, we ensure true brand experience and a great moment of shopping at Foot Locker for our customers.”

Foot Locker, which just closed the Atmos brand in North America, uses Nedap’s “train-the-trainer” deployment model, completing the rollout to the European stores in early 2023.

“We have been working with Nedap for years, and adding new countries, including new stores, has been an easy journey,” Philipsen said. “Due to the user-friendly interface of iD Cloud, store teams find it easy to adopt. As a result, we can scale RFID quickly, resulting in high inventory accuracy and always the right item on display across all Foot Locker stores in Europe.”

Warehouse/Fulfillment

Hai Robotics

Hai Robotics, a producer of autonomous case-handling robot (ACR) systems, has launched of the Grapple Hook ACR, the HaiPick A42T-E2 and the HaiPick System 3. The latter two new innovations are built to address customer concerns around increasing storage density and performance at a smaller warehouse footprint.

The telescopic Grapple Hook ACR can be integrated within HaiPick System 3, creating an ecosystem that facilitates higher performance while delivering enhanced storage density.

The HaiPick A42T-E2—equipped with ChainPick technology—features a grappling hook with a picking speed of 2.7 seconds, quickly pulling totes one after another. Such ChainPick technology can enable up to five-deep tote storage capacity, allowing shorter picking and placing time to further streamline the goods-to-person workflow.

Horizontal space in between totes can be slashed by 60 percent, Hai claims, ensuring no space gap at the back and hence optimizing existing warehouse storage space. Businesses are also offered tailored solutions to scale up or down, allowing them to maintain a competitive edge while ideally still achieving cost-efficiency.

The HaiPick System 3, on the other hand, is the latest solution in Hai’s portfolio, enabling ultra-high storage density up to 50 totes per square meter and increasing worker efficiency by up to six times. HaiPick System 3 is a standardized system incorporating Hai’s telescopic Grapple Hook ACRs and Fast-transit K50 autonomous mobile robots (AMR) running at a speed of four meters per second (nine miles per hour).

The system is intended to introduce fast deployment and efficient ACR-AMR collaboration: While ACRs handle totes from the top to the bottom of the racks, AMRs handle rack-bottom totes between racks and the work station swiftly.

JAS Worldwide/Zebra Technologies

Freight forwarder and logistics services provider JAS Worldwide has selected Zebra Technologies’ Robotics Automation solution to drive efficiency in its fulfillment operations. Zebra’s CartConnect100 AMRs support JAS Worldwide’s strategy to increase throughput for its fulfillment customers at its new 300,000-square-foot contract logistics super hub in Olive Branch, Miss.

Zebra’s CartConnect100 AMRs enable JAS to expand its automation strategies, bringing AMRs into its operations to accelerate the company’s growth in omnichannel fulfillment. JAS selected this solution based on its ability to integrate with the company’s workforce and handle its diverse product mix­­ from high-end fashion and automotive parts and to medical devices.

The solution’s ability to support multi-use workflows including batch, case picking and materials movement was also a critical differentiator for the JAS Contract Logistics team.

Sebastian Tschackert, executive vice president, JAS Contract Logistics, said investing in Zebra’s AMRs has enabled the company to reduce the time spent walking by 40 percent, freeing them to focus on higher value tasks.

The partnership comes as robotics technologies continue to develop more use cases within warehousing. According to the 2023 Zebra Global Warehouse Vision Study, 88 percent of warehouse decision-makers plan to implement mobile robots for a wide range of tasks by 2028, and 78 percent of associates already working with mobile robots agree they make their warehouse jobs less stressful.

Omnichannel

Simon/Dropit

Simon Property Group has selected Dropit, an AI-powered decision engine that integrates with retailers’ existing inventory, warehouse and order management systems, to deliver omnichannel capabilities to individual retailers enabling improved sourcing, delivery and returns for their tenants.

With the decision engine intact, Simon can consolidate information and help retail partners make smarter decisions using real-time data and a single view of inventory.

Participating retailers can leverage Dropit’s full suite of solutions including store fulfillment, reverse logistics, inventory visibility and scan, pay and go.

Simon retailers can connect diverse sales channels to make informed sourcing decisions, essentially converting stores into more efficient last-mile distribution centers to balance inventory, extend network reach and shorten delivery times. The solution also enables users to intelligently route returns to the best location, reducingtime, money and excess waste.

Merchants can unify data across channels in real time to establish a consolidated inventory view to inform smarter decisions, minimize errors and prevent stock-related issues. Additionally, merchants can provide customers with the convenience of scanning in-store items via their mobile phones to create a virtual cart and complete the checkout process online.

Product delivery can also be consolidated into a designated pick-up point, hotel or residence, creating a bag-free shopping experience for customers.

Fulfillment

Flowspace

Fulfillment software platform and distribution network Flowspace has introduced its next-generation transportation management system (TMS).

The TikTok partner’s TMS helps merchants mitigate supply chain risk and maximize efficiency this holiday season. The system is embedded within Flowspace’s OmniFlow software platform, a comprehensive suite of tools designed to streamline and optimize fulfillment for omnichannel brands.

Merchants can use the platform to automatically rate-shop across multiple carriers to select the best, most cost-effective shipping options for their products. The system offers merchants access to a range of national, regional and international carriers.

The Flowspace TMS allows for easy customization based on individual brands’ needs and preferences, enabling merchants to set rules for preferred carriers and exclude those that may extend delivery timelines or increase costs. With connectivity across a broad network of carriers, partners and fulfillment locations, Flowspace enables merchants to alleviate potential threats, avoid costly delays and maintain their reputation for reliability.

In addition, FlowspaceAI for Freight, a concierge tool within the TMS, can further improve efficiencies for merchants booking freight. The tool instantly adds booking date confirmations to orders and generates and attaches appropriate documentation, eliminating many of the tedious, time-consuming processes involved in transportation and freight management while improving workflows on behalf of merchants.

Supply chain

Altana

Supply chain visibility company Altana has debuted its latest update of the Altana Atlas, a solution designed to offer shippers, global logistics providers and customs authorities an intelligent map of the global supply chain.

The Atlas applies AI to a vast network of public and private data to help customers see across the global supply chain, automate trade compliance, detect national security threats, eliminate forced labor, measure and manage their environmental impact, detect real-time risks and opportunities, and collaborate internally and externally on all of it.

The network is built to position each customer’s supply chain data inside a dynamic, bottom-up view of the global supply chain network. The enriched data then feeds into a range of downstream use cases and workflows. Executives can ask strategic questions of their supply chain networks to reveal risks and opportunities, while sourcing and procurement professionals can collaborate with their direct and indirect suppliers to proactively avoid supply interruptions and ensure they are meeting ethical standards. Compliance professionals can automate routine tasks and stay ahead of an increasingly complex and volatile global regulatory landscape.

Every customer’s map dynamically updates based on real-world supply chain activity, is traceable through time as networks evolve, and is interoperable with the other users of the Atlas. Real-time global event monitoring that is directly related to each customer’s specific supply chain network can provide added awareness around risk and opportunity.

Additionally, the Atlas applies AI to deliver tailored insights and recommendations in the context of each individual organization and supply chain. Custom dashboards across the Atlas empower users to generate and share their own analysis, KPIs and insights across all of the map’s underlying intelligence. Users can now overlay their own data and analytics, including third-party commercial data, onto their supply chain master data and multi-tier networks in the Atlas.

The Atlas now provides responses through a large language model-driven natural language assistant. For example, users can ask for details on suppliers associated with the highest revenue that may be at risk because of a recent natural disaster.

The next-generation Altana Atlas will roll out into Q1 2024.

KNNX Group

Freight and logistics software company DLT Labs has rebranded to KNNX Corp. (pronounced “Connects”), effective Wednesday. This transition reflects KNNX’s commitment to “supercharge” supply chains, in particular freight and logistics operations, by interconnecting enterprises with speed and transparency.

KNNX’s collaboration platform and products are designed to provide a single source of truth for all transaction data for current customers in the retail, food and beverage, healthcare, mining and agriculture industries.

KNNX’s product suite is designed to enable logistics collaboration and has already delivered efficiencies and operating savings spanning freight, including e-commerce, last-mile delivery, audit and payment, Direct Store Delivery and Driver Pay.

Working with Mastercard and Transcard, KNNX launched FreightX to provide automated end-to-end freight processing on a shared ledger to resolve invoice disputes, solve cash flow challenges and deliver complete visibility. In addition, KNNX’s products have integrated carbon emissions tracking.

Exiger

Exiger, a supply chain risk management, third-party risk management and compliance software provider, has launched a new supply chain platform, 1Exiger.

The platform houses Exiger’s integrated suite of artificial intelligence solutions within a single platform, and offers access to products including DDIQ, Insight 3PM, Ion Channel, SDX and Supply Chain Explorer. In combining these technologies under one roof, Exiger combines a large corporate and supply chain dataset, data partner network, mapping and AI, as well as Exiger’s entire expert community.

Its risk scoring and thresholding capability is designed to be accessible to everyone, regardless of experience or expertise, and enables more collaborative decision-making environments, empowering procurement professionals while providing visibility to compliance stakeholders who supervise risk.

1Exiger rolled out to the public sector in September and expects to debut in commercial markets in October. Exiger plans to continuously scale 1Exiger over the next decade as the supply chain, geopolitical, economic and risk landscape evolves and has developed a long-term roadmap to introduce new capabilities to the supply chain ecosystem.

The launch comes a month after the company completed its acquisition of risk management platform Ion Channel, following last year’s acquisition of Supply Dynamics.

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