Enhanced customer service continues to drive RFID deployment at Inditex. At the end of 2015, Inditex had deployed RFID at 1,542 of its Zara stores in 64 countries, with rollouts complete in 48 countries. By the end of this year, the technology will be up and running at 2,000 Zara stores. At that point, the company will begin deploying the technology to its other brands.

“We think (RFID) is a very positive change in the way we operate the stores from every point of view,” Inditex president Pablo Isla said in the company’s earnings report last week. “Of course, the main target for implementing RFID has to do with customer service. But it also helps a lot in terms of the way we receive the product in the store, the way we replenish from the stockroom to the floor, and the inventories. So it is helping a lot from every point of view.”

The real-time inventory visibility allowed by RFID supports Inditex’s strategic omni-channel objectives, ensuring that the right products are in the right place at the right time. At its enabled stores, Inditex is achieving operational efficiencies through improved inventory processes and better controls for reducing shrink. The retailer is optimizing its inventory investment and maximizing sales and margins.

“So now we can offer our customers a much better service, from the point of view of the service we offer them, also from the point of view that we can check immediately if (an item) is available or not,” says Isla. “Then we offer them the possibility to order online from the stores.”

Inditex is utilizing Tyco’s Sensormatic dual technology RFID/Acousto-Magnetic (RFID/AM) hard tags and detachers at the point-of-sale. Tyco is also managing Inditex’s tag recirculation program and distributing tags to the point of manufacture to be sent back into the supply chain.