Macy's is using stores to support online orders, particularly those for single items, essentially using the real estate as flexible warehouses.
RFID supports item-level identification, so Macy's can focus on product assortment and service while using existing inventory to address fulfillment demands. Changes to inventory management supporting this omnichannel strategy have allowed Macy's to reduce $1bn of inventory from its stores.
Macy's P2LU program makes available the last unit of an item in any store, and RFID locates it. According to Tyco, retailers don't typically expose the last item of a SKU to online purchasing because they don't have enough confidence in their inventory accuracy or ability to find the item to make every unit available for customer orders.
