Maintaining its aggressive expansion track, American Apparel has plans to open 400 stores worldwide over the next several years. To support this growth, the company continues to innovate with new technologies.
The retailer recently announced its success with RFID, as it has increased sales per store, inventory accuracy, customer satisfaction and associate productivity since implementing the Xterprise Clarity Advanced Retail Solution (ARS) system across 10 stores.
American Apparel, a brand for young adults, has over 250 retail stores in the US, Europe and Asia. Each store carries roughly 38,000 items. Since deploying the RFID solution, American Apparel now has the visibility and control of inventory at the item and store network levels.
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The ARS system is designed to automate previously manual, time-consuming processes, including merchandise receiving and matching, restocking and cycle counts. It also features integrated loss prevention using RFID. The retailer is now able to improve the speed and precision of cycle counts, to gain a comprehensive view of in-store inventory, reduce shrinkage and out-of-stocks.
“RFID is the future of retail because it is a better way of managing inventory, period,” said Zander Livingston, Director of RFID for American Apparel. In a recent press announcement, Livingston said, “Working with 65% or 75% inventory accuracy is a thing of the past. Every retailer can make more money by making replenishment more efficient, but that is just the start of what RFID can do.”
Since the implementation of Xterprise, Livingston said American Apparel has achieved:
- 2%-8% increase in same store sales
- 95+ % inventory accuracy
- 50-75 % decrease in out of stocks
- Marked increases in employee productivity and customer satisfaction
