RFID Retail Case Study India

The Challenge

FabStyle Apparel operates 22 mid-premium fashion stores across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune. With seasonal collections rotating every 8–12 weeks, maintaining accurate inventory visibility was a persistent operational challenge.

The traditional barcode-based system required weekly manual counts that were disruptive and still unreliable. The central merchandising team had no real-time visibility into individual store inventory, leading to poor replenishment decisions — some stores running out of bestselling sizes while others had excess slow-movers.

• Store inventory accuracy at 87–91% using barcode system
• Weekly manual count required 2 staff for 6 hours (closed floor section)
• Estimated 1.8% shrinkage rate (INR 86 lakhs annual loss)
• Stockouts on best-selling sizes causing 15–20% lost sales opportunities
• Replenishment delays of 3–5 days due to inaccurate store-level data

The Solution

FabStyle deployed Identium's item-level UHF RFID solution, starting with a 3-store pilot in Mumbai before rolling out to all 22 locations. RFID hang tags were applied at the central distribution centre before dispatch to stores.

Results After 18 Months

"The visibility we now have into every store's inventory in real-time has completely changed how our merchandising team operates. Replenishment decisions that used to take 3 days now happen automatically within hours. The ROI was clear within the first season."

— Head of Retail Operations, FabStyle Apparel India Ltd.

Products Used in This Deployment