A Thai Furniture Store Boosts Retail Efficiency With Chainway Handhelds

Background
This retailer is a large building material superstore in Thailand. It has more than 50 chain stores in Thai major cities. Customers enjoy more than 100,000 items of high quality under one roof, from construction materials to furniture. With the expanding of business, it was looking for mobile technologies to better manage its chain stores and server customers.

Challenges:
1. Each store has thousands of items in different types and quantities. Manually counting inventory is time-consuming, error-prone and labor-intensive.
2. Without real-time visibility, retailers face challenges ensuring that the right order is pulled from the right location at the warehouse, and that a specific item is available when a customer walks into the store.
3. Each store does not have access to stock levels of other physical stores, retailers cannot respond to customers’ demands no matter at which store they shop, nor can they replenish products in time to prevent shrink.

Solution:
Shenzhen Chainway Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Chainway) provides C4050 handheld computers with barcode, Wi-Fi, and other IoT functions to this Thai retailer. This terminal improves efficiency and productivity of retail processes from warehousing to in-store operations. 

Application:

Warehouse Management
By scanning products’ barcodes, Chainway mobile computer automatically identifies products and updates captured data to the backend server under Wi-Fi connectivity in receiving, inventory tracking, picking and putting-away. 

In-store Traceability
Store associates scan items’ barcodes with Chainway handheld computers to realize quick and accurate inventory tracking. It allows the retailer to execute a physical inventory and order fulfillment in minutes.

Data Sharing and Analysis
At each chain store, staff use Chainway mobile terminals to record stock levels at a regular basis and transfer these data to the backend server for retailers to view sales and inventory data of stores at multiple physical locations. 

Effects
1. Chainway handheld computer makes warehouse more intelligent and warehousing operations more efficient. 
2. Accurate inventory tracking enables retailers to get real-time notification of out-of-stock items and replenish products in time.  
3. Based on real-time stock levels, retailers can make timely market metrics for true demand-driven merchandising.
4. Store-to-store inventory transparency can optimize sales and enhance customer loyalty.