Cleor Revolutionizes Logistics in the Jewelry Sector

Key facts

• 138 boutiques in France, plus an online store
• An average of 10,000 items per store
• Time taking inventory reduced from 4 days to 4 hours

Challenges

• Obtain precise inventory data.
• Stop interrupting visual merchandising when doing stock related tasks.
• Increase employee productivity by cutting the time for tedious inventory tasks.

Frequentiel Solution

• OCTO+ item-level RFID software platform.
• Employee facing apps to streamline routine tasks.
• Expert retail, software integration and RFID professional services.
• Device and fixed hardware management services.
• Development of a proprietary box antenna for bulk scanning of jewelry.

Benefits

• Item-level stock management everywhere: in the factory, warehouses, stores.
• Drastic reduction in inventory taking times.
• Employees can focus on sales.
• Improved customer experience.
• Merchandising is no longer disrupted by inventory taking: product layout is always optimal.

Innovative French jeweler, Cleor, has been creating quality jewelry at affordable prices since 1997. With both an online store and over 138 boutiques throughout France, the company is as accessible geographically as it is affordable.

A Time-Consuming and Costly Operation

Cleor prides itself on being at the forefront of innovation, from its products to its processes and marketing. Stock management in the jewelry sector is particularly challenging — items and labels are characterized by small sizes, making bar code reading difficult. At Cleor, inventory counts were a time-consuming and costly manual operation. The company realized they needed to overhaul their full inventory management processes.

“Due to the value of our in-store inventory, we must regularly conduct inventories, which involve removing each item from the window, reading the barcode and then putting it back,” says Julien Le Gauffre, Cleor’s Managing Director. “With an average of 10,000 jewels per store, the time spent on inventory-related tasks was incredibly high. So much so that, whenever we visited a store, we always found a salesperson with their hands in the window carrying out the inventory!”

In order for its salespeople to focus more on their core responsibilities — selling and advising customers — Cleor decided to implement RFID technology for labeling all products, to make the preparation, shipping and receiving of merchandise more reliable and efficient, and to improve stock tracking.

Taking Inventory Procedures to the Next Level

“We discovered that RFID technology allowed us to integrate a chip into all our labels, however small, and use an RFID antenna to collect inventory data in a contactless fashion,” says Le Gauffre. “We were surprised by the efficiency and performance of the first RFID tests in our showroom.”

Encouraged by these first results, Cleor launched a request for proposal (RFP) to select a partner to take its inventory procedures to the next level. After an overview of the various players in the RFID technology market, Cleor opted for a joint proposal from Frequentiel and Zebra Teklogix — a global terminal manufacturer.

“In addition to Frequentiel’s RFID expertise and pricing, we were seduced by their innovative technology, which perfectly matched our requirements,” says Le Gauffre.

The re-labeling of the company’s 800,000 products was carried out by an external service provider. For Cleor, tag manufacturer Tageos developed a new RFID tag allowing the integration of an RFID chip and an antenna in a paper jewelry label. Within a few months, Cleor’s RFID technology project was in full swing.

One of Frequentiel’s strengths is its ability to design and manufacture tailor-made RFID antennas and rackets, in addition to its software expertise. The company designed a custom cube antenna for Cleor. Hundreds of jewelry items can be put in the cube and all identified in one go.

Productivity, Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction

Thanks to Frequentiel’s RFID solution, Cleor has optimized productivity and logistics efficiency, from the depot to sales points. This RFID project guarantees Cleor multiple benefits in terms of productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction.

“Generally, our jewelry is grouped in physical lots of a hundred items,” explains Le Gauffre. “Before, we had to take out each jewel to barcode scan its label. Now, the operator reads the batch of articles instantly, either by placing them inside the cube antenna designed by Frequentiel or by scanning them with their PDA equipped with an RFID antenna.”

The same applies to the inventory of products on display. “We no longer touch the windows to do our product inventory,” says Le Gauffre. “We just pass the PDA antenna in the middle of the window: a beep is issued for every product that is detected. The accuracy and speed are impressive and particularly appreciated since we now impose very strict merchandising standards for creating our window displays.”

“This project ensures real productivity gains. And it’s not over, because this first project opens the way for a new generation of smart windows,” concludes Le Gauffre.

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