Next in Retail

Smart Tagging: IoT solutions around shipping and receiving is playing out more and more frequently. One of the trends that I see is the “Smart” supply chain. As “smart tags”, think Bluetooth in this case, become smaller and cheaper, retailers now can place tags within each case shipped, or each pallet shipped or even have them printed within the packaging material. These identifiers enable a host of capabilities such as automatically updating inventory systems, providing chain of custody reporting, talk to smart hubs for aggregation and door to door automation. Really the possibilities are quite endless.

Loss Prevention in Transit: Moving goods from distribution centers to stores, or from ports to distribution centers is the backbone of the retail industry. The ability to know what and how much of any product that is being sold or manufactured that is inbound or outbound feeds the forecasts projecting company health. Using contextual data during transit to determine when and where vehicles or assets make stops is critical in understanding the potential of theft. Taking into account vehicle location, doors open, vibration within trailers or containers, images from freight cameras all grouped together can identify patterns that may be correlated and presented to fleet managers as potential freight loss.

Jim Zeitunian

Chief Technology Officer, Powerfleet