Manhattan Associates has unveiled its vision for an RFID-powered store. Manhattan Active Omni suite has expanded its support of RFID tags for automating and streamlining the inventory counting, receiving, picking, checkout, return and exchange processes.

Retailers are increasingly depending on their stores to fulfill both in-store and online orders. However, their ability to do so is often hindered by poor store inventory accuracy, which often falls below 70%. In fact, a recent Manhattan survey found that only 3% of retailers believed they had an accurate view of inventory in stores and across their distribution network.

Manhattan has solved this challenge by enabling its point-of-sale and store fulfillment solutions with handheld RFID support for all inventory management and order fulfillment activities. By combining RFID technology with Manhattan Active Omni, retailers can increase store inventory accuracy from 70% to nearly 100%. Manhattan’s solution also reduces inventory-related labor hours, helps associates quickly locate merchandise and expedites transactions at the point of sale.

Manhattan Active Omni’s RFID capabilities streamline and automate inventory counting and receiving processes. Store-wide inventory counts can be performed quickly and accurately by store associates armed with the latest handheld devices. Associates can also use the mobile RFID scanners to reduce the time required to perform unit level receiving of new inventory items.

In active store environments, it is common for merchandise to be moved by customers or even misplaced by store staff. Manhattan’s new find mode works just like a metal detector, using handheld RFID devices to direct store associates to the precise location of tagged items, reducing inventory shortages and time spent hunting for missing items.

Manhattan’s new RFID capabilities can also be used to speed up sales transactions and returns. Readers placed at the point-of-sale capture tag information as soon as merchandise is placed on the counter, immediately populating the customer’s shopping cart.

“Manhattan Active Omni delivers a unified approach to selling, engaging and fulfilling in a single store application. By integrating RFID into its store solutions, Manhattan is able to reduce the time and effort required to implement RFID, while ensuring store associates can continue to leverage the most advanced store solution in the market,” Manhattan senior director of product management, Amy Tennent said.