Sport Zone, the largest sports retailer in Portugal, has decided to deploy RFID across all of its 120 stores. By September, the retailer plans to have its first 10 stores up and running. After a successful pilot at two stores, Sport Zone expects to enhance supply chain management and improve the overall retail customer experience.

Sports Zone, Avery Dennison and Tyco Retail Solutions launched a pilot program in April 2015 by tagging apparel and footwear in two stores. Sports Zone improved stock accuracy to 99 percent, saw a 92 percent reduction in stock counting efforts and a 90 percent reduction in receiving efforts. The retailer also saw a significant sales lift.

“This pilot is the beginning of a new era in Sport Zone. The RFID adoption enabled us to deliver a reliable store stock visibility and improves our customer service on the shop floor,” says Miguel Teles, head of supply chain at Sport Zone. “The end game of the RFID pilot enabled us to consolidate our position as an omni-channel player.”

Avery Dennison has worked with Sport Zone for several years, offering integrated branding solutions in addition to launching its RFID pilot program, which includes source tagging and enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrations.

As part of the rollout, initially to 10 stores, Avery Dennison will continue to innovate by providing soft tag RFID for all the different product categories, in addition to integrating its solutions with Sport Zone’s IT system.