Store inventory management involves tracking the number of items located in various areas of a store. In large retail enterprises, inventory tracking must be performed across multiple stores and within various distribution centers. In general, inventory management involves periodic inventory counts during which actual numbers of product units are determined followed by periods of estimated counts where the number of units is estimated based on the initial values from an inventory count, the number of items sold, and the number of items shipped to or from a store or distribution center.
Performing inventory counts is a labor intensive endeavor that is prone to human error. In recent years, RFID technology has been used to reduce the amount of labor required for inventory counting. In RFID-based systems, individual product units are provided with RFID tags that generate a radio signal, which provides a unique RFID value associated with the tag. During an inventory count, an RFID scanner, either a fixed scanner or a mobile scanner, is used to collect RFID values of product units in areas of a store. The received RFID values are then converted into product descriptors, such as a product ID, product name, or product class. The RFID values that have a same product descriptor are then counted to arrive at the number of units of the product that are in the store.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. The claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in the background.