GANNI: the fashion industry's scandi-chic icon optimises its RFID efforts with Trimco Group’s source-tagging solution
GANNI, the Danish fashion brand renowned for its scandi-chic aesthetics and design, has cemented its place as a global icon in the industry. In addition to their growing own store estate and availability through hundreds of wholesalers, the brand has recently expanded into China. This, complemented by a robust online presence, enables GANNI to reach customers worldwide.
GANNI's success is supported by its RFID implementation for inventory management, ensuring efficient stock control, and enabling omnichannel services.
The beginning of the RFID Journey
With the goal to centralise inventory and unlock omnichannel services, GANNI introduced RFID to support the retail-oriented business goals of the brand, as well as touch on sustainability factors influenced by inventory visibility and stock management. At that point, Trimco Group was already the designated trim, and variable data partner, supplying items such as barcodes, retail price stickers, wash care labels, and information tags directly to GANNI’s garment manufacturers. Initially, flexibility and the reduced need for investment convinced GANNI to choose RFID tagging at the Distribution Centre.
Joining the company a few months after the initial implementation, Zhu Wang, today Senior Supply Chain Planner at GANNI, has been closely involved in the process from the first pilot store to the global rollout and the launch of omni operations. “RFID gives you more stock control”, shares Zhu Wang. “When we first introduced RFID, we wanted maximum flexibility while we were still learning and expanding the business. Therefore, we chose to do the tagging at our warehouses.”, adds Wang.
What is RFID Source Tagging?
Variable data and RFID source tagging is the process of applying supply chain labelling at the point of manufacturing. The process ensures that products are securely tagged with barcodes, sales prices, RFID data, etc., when received in Distribution Centres, warehouses, and stores. This method allows the products to be tracked throughout the supply chain automatically.
What is Tagging at Distribution Centres?
Compared to tagging at the source, tagging at Distribution Centre levels involves mounting RFID tags and labels to the products when departing the Distribution Centres. This process involves additional labour and time, but it allows for greater tagging flexibility in the supply chain.
A turning point and a new solution
After a few years tagging at the Distribution Centres, GANNI felt mature enough in the processes to take the next step. “While RFID tagging at the warehouse gives a lot of flexibility it also leaves room for mistakes, and it is a more costly operation than tagging directly from the suppliers. Furthermore, unifying tags was a natural next step in our omnichannel strategy since we did specific tagging for different sales channels” mentions Zhu.
RFID Director at Trimco Group, Dennis Sand Eskesen, mentions that “this is not an uncommon story. GANNI identified that the manual application of RFID labels for a delivery channel at the Distribution Centers was counterproductive, increasing total costs compared with RFID source tagging all garments. While it served its purpose, it was easy for both of us to identify the issue and agree that it was time to find a better solution. Introducing tagging at the point of manufacturing turned out to be the lifebuoy to bring the RFID project ashore”.
Trimco Group has been delivering variable data, such as barcodes, retail price stickers, wash care labels, and information tags, directly to GANNI’s garment manufacturers, as well as the designated trim and garment accessories partner for many years. So, the brand’s need for a new RFID label partner was a natural addition.
“Choosing Trimco Group for the task was an easy decision. We already have a strong partnership in terms of the non-RFID labels provided to our suppliers all around the world, so we were happy that we can utilise this relationship already. Having a really good industry reputation on the technology and the efficiency side of things helped too. And because our RFID technology partner, Securitas, confirmed Trimco’s professionalism even further, the collaboration came naturally.”
Implementing RFID with source-tagging streamlines the inventory management process and reduces labour costs, as well as eliminating errors otherwise caused by manual tracking. Compared to tagging at the Distribution Centres, GANNI will see cost savings in the long run with the new setup thanks to improved accuracy of stock management caused by, e.g. overstocking or stockouts. Real-time data and brand safety in terms of counterfeiting are additional advantages of RFID with source tagging.
Omnichannel-ready
RFID is not only a matter of choice. A brand like GANNI, with a presence in wholesale, will more likely face requirements to implement RFID technology. Zhu mentions that “they (one of major clients) started to ask us to have RFID labels mandatory from this year. RFID is a great way to ensure you have the right goods at the wholesalers. So it's actually the right goods which are being sold. We are gradually implementing RFID in department stores even though they are using different systems or have different stock control systems. Thanks to the RFID tags and the RFID scanners, we can still have visibility of the stock of different departments”.
For GANNI, a super-brand in terms of growth and development, having a partner who understands growth and the challenges it brings is crucial. “RFID is a fascinating technology that impacts the brand at many levels, from logistics and operations to sales and sustainability. RFID must not be seen as a source of challenges but a tool of opportunities and solutions, with implications in everything from stock management to sustainability goals. That’s why working with the right partners is crucial for the success of such a project. At Trimco Group, we are proud to be part of this growth journey with the team at GANNI. By supporting them with the RFID tagging at the source, together with our software partners at Securitas, GANNI can now be omnichannel-ready, being able to unfold its full potential whether it is retail, wholesale, or online”, concludes Dennis Sand Eskesen.
While both RFID source tagging and tagging at Distribution Centres have their advantages, RFID source tagging provides significant benefits in terms of efficiency, security, cost savings, and data collection.
Special thanks to Zhu Wang and GANNI for their availability in writing this article.