American Apparel Rolls Out RFID
American Apparel is rolling out RFID technology to all 280 stores and expects to be completed by the end of the year. The apparel retailer has already deployed the technology to 100 of its locations. This system will help to track every item as it enters the store, is moved to the sales floor, and proceeds to the point of sale (POS).
Stacey Shulman, vice president of technology for American Apparel said in a statement that sales have increased at stores already using RFID, while internal shrinkage has dropped by 75 percent in some locations and 55 percent overall. Shrinkage is caused from employee theft, or the loss of items due to human error such as mistakes made during receiving.
Also being deployed is Xterprise Clarity Advanced Retail System (ARS) software to enable the verification of receiving shipments and transfers from one location to another as well as the counting of inventory within a particular store. This will also increase the ability to search for special tagged items using handheld readers, the creation of fulfillment lists and integrated POS functionality.
Each installation includes a fixed RFID reader and a second unit to identify items being carried to the sales floor. A third reader is installed at the point of sale in order to interrogate the tag of every item being purchased.