As shoppers and retailers navigate through the new six-foot economy, they are adjusting to help accommodate changing shopping patterns and safety guidelines. Handling merchandise returns in the “new normal” has proven to be a challenge for retailers. Many need to adapt their return policies to offer more convenience to shoppers, encourage spending and ensure returned merchandise follows protocol to avoid contaminations.

More shoppers have moved to buying online which has created a higher return rate. This especially affects categories like apparel and footwear, where web-based sizing tools are not as accurate and effective as trying them on in a store’s fitting room. This higher return rate also created new COVID-19 safety protocols, such as quarantining merchandise before it can be returned to the shelf or shipped to fulfill e-commerce orders.

Inventory accuracy is key to success in an environment where product availability is one of the most important factors for 34% of customers (Sensormatic Survey- June 2020) and where shoppers are taking fewer shopping trips, but spending more. Most importantly,accurate inventory helps ensure the merchandise shoppers want is available when they want to buy it. And making sure the inventory has been properly quarantined and disinfected is important to providing a safe shopping experience.

Our TrueVUE Cloud Inventory Intelligence solution helps optimize customer engagement by capturing real-time inventory information across touchpoints and events along the customer purchase journey. This RFID-enabled technology, in combination with algorithms created by industry-leading retail operations expertise, allows sales associates to know precisely what merchandise is available, helping deliver a frictionless shopper experience.

The foundation of precise insights is based on carefully crafted logic that each individual item can have specific workflows to be followed for a business outcome that is flexible enough to execute at the store level, but also globally scalable. When RFID tagged merchandise is returned, TrueVUE Cloud can place individual items into a quarantine zone and provide notifications to retail teams when they are ready for safe disposition.

For more details about how TrueVUE Cloud can help you recover in the new six-foot economy, check out (https://www.sensormatic.com/landing/truevue-incloud).