American Apparel Boosts Sales, Customer Satisfaction And Employee Productivity With RFID Solution From Xterprise
Xterprise Incorporated, a leader in item-level RFID solutions for retail, today announced American Apparel (APP: AMEX) has increased sales per store, inventory accuracy, customer satisfaction and associate productivity by deploying the Xterprise Clarity Advanced Retail Solution (ARS) system across 10 stores. American Apparel selected Xterprise based on the company's experience with large RFID deployments, unique item-level inventory management capabilities and the ability to scale to meet the volumes and complexities of a growing retail chain network.
Visit Xterprise at the NRF Conference and EXPO this week, where they will be exhibiting with Microsoft in Booth # 836 and Motorola in Booth # 1623 to learn more the Clarity ARS solution for retail.
Innovation is a Part of the American Apparel Fabric American Apparel is a leading brand for young adults and is well known for cutting-edge approach to retail and technology. With over 250 retail stores in the US, Europe and Asia, each store carries roughly 38,000 items. Despite the challenging market conditions, American Apparel has aggressive growth plans to establish 400 stores worldwide over the next several years. In order to make that a reality the organization required a repeatable, scalable store item-level inventory management solution.
By deploying the Clarity ARS solution from Xterprise, American Apparel now has the visibility and control of inventory at the item and store network levels, delivering a rapid return on investment. The solution automates many previously manual, time-consuming processes, including merchandise receiving and matching, restocking and cycle counts. It also features integrated loss prevention using RFID, providing a low cost alternative to traditional stand-alone electronic article surveillance (EAS) hardware solutions. 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.
Key results include:
- 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
"RFID is the future of retail because it is a better way of managing inventory, period. Working with 65 or 75 percent 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," said Zander Livingston, Director of RFID for American Apparel. "The business insight portion of the Xterprise solution makes it possible for us to check, in real time, on the heartbeat of each store using the system today, but the deeper opportunity lies in the ability to scale and meet changing business requirements as we continue to grow."
Partnership Strength
The Xterprise solution is complimented by Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009, which delivers enterprise-class scalability at a low total cost of ownership. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Xterprise and Microsoft are able to offer the integrated solutions customers such as American Apparel need to cut shrinkage and increase customer service.
"In today's business environment, retailers must have accurate and up-to-date information on the flow of merchandise through their stores, and Microsoft is dedicated to providing the technology platform needed to support those store-level solutions," said David Gruehn, U.S. retail industry solution director, Microsoft Corp. "The Xterprise Clarity ARS Advanced Retail System is a prime example of technology that fully utilizes the Microsoft software platform to help retailers reduce costs and improve performance and profitability."
Other complementary partner technologies include RFID tags from Avery Dennison and mobile and fixed RFID readers from Motorola, including the new FX-7400 fixed reader designed for high performance in customer-facing environments.
"Retailers, like many organizations, are focused on doing more with less. The convergence of RFID, store security, loss prevention and "lean" retail practices continue as retailers can no longer afford to view these as separate initiatives. Innovative companies such as American Apparel recognize this trend and are seeking ways to maximize their investment in technologies such as RFID to provide them with real time insight into their business" said Dean Frew, founder and CEO of Xterprise. "We are proud to be a part of the American Apparel RFID rollout – the first of its size in North America – and are committed to delivering the precision and scalability our customers require in a dynamic retail setting."
About American Apparel.
American Apparel is a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of branded fashion basic apparel based in downtown Los Angeles, California. As of September 30, 2009, American Apparel employed approximately 9,000 people and operated over 275 retail stores in 20 countries, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and China. American Apparel also operates a leading wholesale business that supplies high quality T-shirts and other casual wear to distributors and screen printers. In addition to its retail stores and wholesale operations, American Apparel operates an online retail e-commerce website at http://www.americanapparel.com.
About Xterprise
Xterprise Incorporated is a leader in the development, sale and delivery of enterprise-class RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) software applications. Our highly scalable Clarity™ applications combine the latest RFID and other sensory technologies along with our Clarity™ application framework, Microsoft platform technology, and lean process expertise to deliver previously unachievable levels of visibility, accuracy, process compliance and value to our clients. Recognized by Microsoft as the 2008 RFID Partner of the Year, Xterprise delivers fast ROI, high value and low TCO solutions and services with a single point of accountability across a wide variety of industries including retail, distribution and manufacturing providing the flexibility and scale businesses need to build competitive advantage.
For additional information call us at +1-972-690-946, email us at info@xterprise.com or visit us online at www.Xterprise.com.
SOURCE: Xterprise Incorporated