Key Takeaways
- Baseline scenario
- Five benefit streams
- Sensitivity analysis
01Baseline scenario
We model 3-year ROI for a mid-size retailer (60K SKUs, 50 stores). One-time investment covers hardware, tags and integration; annual ops cost is modest.
02Five benefit streams
Total annual benefit is substantial, paying back the one-time investment within months and yielding 380% net 3-year ROI. Below is the five-stream breakdown.
- Labour: 8h×4×12 → 0.5h×1×52 — significant annual savings
- Loss prevention: shrink 1.2% → 0.4% — significant annual savings
- Inventory carrying: safety stock −15% — significant annual savings
- Stockout recovery: stockout hours −42% — significant annual sales recovered
- Error correction: receiving/picking errors −80% — significant annual savings
03Sensitivity analysis
Even with benefits discounted 30%, 3-year ROI reaches 266% with 6-month payback. The worst case (50% discount) still yields 190% ROI / 9-month payback — outperforming most IT investments.
