Summary:

Centauro, LATAM’s largest sporting goods retailer, modernized enterprise retail operations using BarTender Track & Trace. Tracking 40 million items across 230+ stores, Centauro boosted inventory accuracy from 87% to 99% and cut out-of-stocks from 11% to 2%. Results included 240% faster receiving, 146% online sales growth, 73% lower safety stock, and enhanced omnichannel fulfillment through real-time, unified inventory visibility.

“Inventory accuracy is critical because knowing what we have in stock and what we receive in the store allows us to control the entire supply chain."

—Silvia Batista, Head of Omnichannel, Store Performance and Productivity

Centauro, Latin America’s largest multi-brand sporting goods retailer had the objective of modernizing its retail operations, with a target of unifying sales channels and enhancing omnichannel services. To support this effort, Centauro chose to improve the reliability and visibility of its inventories across the network of stores with RFID technology.

Centauro places its customers at the heart of its processes. The aim was to delight customers with a better omnichannel service. To this end, the ask entailed:

• Streamlining logistics and workflows
• Improving stock accuracy by ensuring that all individual items are tracked and all their events captured throughout their unique lifecycle
• Unifying inventory across channels and sites, and therefore eliminating data silos
   

The scale

With over 230 stores, 8000 employees, several DCs, and 40 million items needing a complete operational overhaul, the project was no easy undertaking. BarTender Track & Trace was selected based on 20 years of successful track record in helping large, multinational companies scale their supply chain operations, and for their RFID expertise. The edge-to-cloud RFID deployment was made possible thanks to Google Cloud’s unique open-source cloud, which enabled the implementation of BarTender’s SaaS platform across Centauro’s large network of stores in record time.

Better together 

Key to this project’s success was Google Cloud’s unique open-source architecture which hosts BarTender Track & Trace. Google Cloud’s secure and reliable global network allows for remote SaaS management across multiple locations. Track & Trace is a perfect choice for clients who need to scale without sacrificing security. As a level-4 maturity, hybrid cloud SaaS platform, Track & Trace is configurable, multi-tenant, and scalable. Additionally, the SaaS platform is hardware and software-agnostic, simplifying complex implementations like RFID deployments. The results speak for themselves: Centauro can now leverage a unified global inventory, with streamlined operational processes, and harness granular, item-level data in real-time.

Project wins

With Track & Trace, Centauro exceeded its operational goals with impressive long-term results. The project KPIs were to improve overall supply chain efficiency, reduce out-of-stock levels, and migrate to a more customer-centric strategy with enhanced omnichannel services.

Inventory Control

• Daily cycle counts are now a reality.
• Average out-of-stock improvement from 11% to 2%
• Inventory accuracy improved from 87% to 99% with less than a 1% discrepancy.

Supply Chain

• Receiving productivity improved by 240%.
• Accuracy reached over 96% on an average of 20,000 items received per store, on a weekly basis.

Omnichannel Fulfillment

• Online sales grew by 146%, with canceled orders decreasing by 24% as a result of better item availability.
• Productivity grew by 10% thanks to the in-store Search & Pick feature.

• Safety stock levels were reduced by 73% due to better inventory accuracy and visibility.

   

"One of the most exciting improvements we’ve made is in replenishment. Average out-of-stocks has gone from 11% to less than 2%, replacement cycles every hour, with accuracy and precision in the exact replacement of the SKU that is missing in the sales floor area.”

—Silvia Batista, Head of Omnichannel, Store Performance and Productivity