From RFID To Real-Time Retail With Radar CEO Spencer Hewett | 5IM

Foreign.

Joining us for today's five insightful minutes segment is Spencer Hewitt.

Spencer is the CEO of Radar and he's here to discuss his company's latest investment round, what it means for the future of in store retail accuracy, and possibly he's here even to help me eat a big portion of humble pie.

Spencer, it's great to have you back.

And before I eat crow, REM remind our audience of who you are and what it is that Radar does.

Good to you.

Chris, appreciate the acknowledgement.

Good to be back.

Yeah.

So I'm Spencer Hewitt.

I'm the founder and CEO at Radar.

We make a hardware and software platform, basically have sensors that go in the ceiling that locate RFID tag products super accurately in store in real time.

And we use that to count the inventory with 99 plus percent detect rate as well as measure what's happening in your store.

Got it.

So that thank you for that.

Thanks for that reminder.

But you know, and last time we had you on I'm, I you and I made a bet.

I got to give you credit because you and I made a bet live with each other because at the time you had a big announcement with Old Navy and I said that I was a little skeptical that you would meet the timelines of your rollout that both you and Old Navy were reporting and that and you said, nope, we're going to do it.

And you bet me a beer that you would.

And then last week I see in the news that you reach unicorn status.

So I've got to think I'm going to probably lose this bet.

So as much as you can tell me, what is your latest update on your deployment and also what are retailers actually seeing operationally from deploying your technology?

So I think last time we spoke, we were in about 500 stores across the U.S. now we're in 1500 stores across the U.S. so we've made significant progress and we're continuing to deploy about 100 stores a month across, you know, multiple brands.

And yeah, I think in terms of what retailers are seeing, you know, I actually met with a store manager at a store that we're in, can't say which retailer, a couple of weeks ago.

And they were basically reporting that they've seen an 8% lift in sales over traffic post radar.

They've seen a 60% reduction in shrink post radar.

And I think this is a combination of like 66,0 yet I think this is a combination of like distribution center sending inventory, getting feedback that they were getting shorted, for example.

So those future shipments are Being packed more carefully.

And then, you know, potentially you also have some internal shrink occurring as well that I think goes away when you have real time monitoring across the store.

The other interesting thing they mentioned was they saw an increase in the fulfillment rate of online orders from like 70% fulfillment to 98%.

And they're able to do that, you know, way more efficient.

Efficiently, because now every single store associate knows exactly where the product is that they're trying to pick and find to pack, to ship out or get ready for pickup.

Yeah.

So I think, and beyond that, I think the most important thing is that the associates love having this technology because it allows them to find products quickly for customers and have confidence going up to a customer, you know, when they're asking them, hey, can you find this a different size?

They have now confidence they can find it for the customer instead of leaving them hanging, you know, for 15 minutes while they search in the back.

Spencer, what's, what's the, what's that conversation like?

Or what's the look on the face of the executive when you tell them the number is 60% reduction?

Like, like, are they like just gobsmacked, they don't know what to do or like they disbelieving, like bring us inside that conversation.

I mean, these are vetted numbers by them, right?

So these aren't our numbers.

These are things that we're hearing directly from the store manager and in this particular case, they're over the moon about these results because it makes such a big impact to their business.

Is that the key piece of what sets you guys apart?

Spencer?

Because I was talking about on the podcast last week where I was teasing the fact that you were going to be on, I was saying like, you know, it comes down to accuracy and then it comes down to being able to do things that are insightful with the data that you're able to provide.

Am I thinking about that the right way?

Is that two of the key elements that, that separate radar from the competition in your mind?

Yeah, I'd say there's like kind of four main elements that separate us.

The first is detect rate.

So we have, you know, we guarantee actually above a 99% detect rate in all of our contracts with customers.

We also have the best location accuracy.

So you'll see, you know, two foot location accuracy from our system at scale, you know, now in 1500 stores.

And then the other piece is latency.

So how quickly can you update the position of these items in the store and really measure the store the same way you measure an E commerce platform, what are people picking up, putting down, taking the fitting room, etc.

If you don't have the ability to update large populations of tags quickly, you don't.

You miss out on all these measurements and you might as well just use like a handheld system.

So beyond that, the fourth thing that differentiates us is the fact that we're vertically integrated.

So we built all the hardware from the ground up, all of our own proprietary signal processing antenna, et cetera, and then we also combined it with proprietary software that is meant to work with the hardware and take advantage of all those core technical improvements that we've made.

That's really important there because there's a data layer that you're talking about.

And so the latency was the key.

Add to me in what you said, like the latency and being able to get as close to real time as you want to from a data perspective.

So, you know, with that, with that as the backdrop, how close do you think we actually are to the idea of the truly connected store where you've got inventory, fulfillment, staffing, all working in concert together by way of that, you know, basically real time data layer, as close as you can get to it?

Yeah, I think we're, you know, we now have the technology to enable that.

Today we are launching and have launched analytics and beta with several of our customers where they're able to insights from the store.

These insights impact things such as staffing, as you mentioned, how to allocate hours and where to in particular.

And it's all this dynamic feedback loop and eventually becomes predictive.

All right, great.

Well, let's get you out of here on this.

And for the record, I'm not making any bets with you in regards to your answer for this question because I've learned my lesson on that front.

But if you're on this podcast one year from now, because I think we had you on the podcast about a year ago, give or take.

So let's say we flash forward a year from now.

What do you hope radar has accomplished then?

What do you hope to be talking to me about then?

So I hope that we have deployed to significantly more fleets a year from now.

That's, you know, given that's kind of like know the main thing we have to accomplish is getting radar and more fleets.

Beyond that, I think I, I really hope that we've accomplished moving into new categories of retail RFID technology and, and radar technology combined have gone to a place where this can expand outside of traditional apparel and footwear into like beauty, consumer electronics, general merchandise.

And I really think that's like the next frontier that will have this super beneficial effect across other categories of retail as well as like continuing to drive the cost of tags lower and lower.

Spencer, if you were to put your money where your mouth is and tell me like the next category of retail outside of apparel and footwear, where we'll see the big movement towards RFID and the way you're doing it at the retailers where you are, what would you, where do you think it's going to be?

I would say I think consumer electronics.

Okay.

Will be a big category.

Consumer electronics.

Okay.

Wow.

All right.

That was not what I expected.

All right.

And I'm not, I'm not betting against you, my friend.

I'm definitely not betting against you.

Well, thank you so much, Spencer.

That was great.

Yeah, I appreciate it, Chris.

Thank you.