RFID Technology Speeds Up Inventory Turnover Of US Apparel Retailers

AmericanApparel, headquartered in Losangeles, USA, is a well-known fashion manufacturer, distributor and retailer. American Apparel started with wholesale T-shirts and opened its first retail store in 2003. By the middle of 2008, more than 200 retail outlets were opened in 18 countries and regions, and the number of chain stores is growing rapidly. As an industry leading enterprise integrating textile, printing, dyeing, tailoring and sewing, all products of American clothing are made in the United States, and have won high brand loyalty in the urban young consumer groups.

Challenge: improving business processes, reducing customer loss due to outage.

When it comes to boutique retailing, there are only one piece of clothing, each color and size. Due to the fast turnover of inventory, employees are required to travel between warehouses and stores several times, especially during peak sales hours. When we need to manage more than 26000 SKU (minimum inventory units), we need to ensure that the inventory is accurate and ensure that the inventory of 100% of the store takes a lot of time and manpower. These two factors are the key to the success of chain stores, because both inventory errors and replenishment delays will directly lead to loss of customers.

For American Apparel, it is obvious to reduce manpower and increase the potential benefits of sales by deploying single level RFID technology. Taking into account the control of manufacturing, distribution and retailing, the US apparel program not only wants to give full play to the role of RFID in retail but also applies it to the entire closed-loop supply chain. Meanwhile, American Apparel also hopes to test the accuracy, performance and adaptability of RFID technology to the company's business processes.

Solution: Motorola RFID solution

The American clothing store is a pilot store in RFID, Columbia University, New York. This store is in line with the requirements of the US apparel deployment RFID solution, with a moderate sales performance and stable passenger flow. The salesperson is also willing to learn new technologies and new inventory management processes. Because it is located in other regional store centers, this will facilitate regional promotion after the successful RFID pilot.

American Apparel has also considered the technical partners supporting the pilot. With its leading position in the market and innovative technology, Motorola mobile business has emerged in the process of evaluation. American Apparel finally chose Motorola RFID solution consisting of Motorola MC9090-GRFID handheld reader, built-in Motorola AN400 fixed XR440 reader and VueTechnologies TrueVUE platform. Motorola MC9090-G is used for product commissioning and cycle counting, and through the deployment of Motorola XR440 fixed reader with built-in AN400 antenna, tracking inventory from warehouse to store and point of sale to show sales and stock reduction and ensure timely replenishment.

American Apparel will label the RFID label on every garment and item in the store of Columbia University in New York. When the product is tagged, these tags correspond to the specific SKU in the TrueVUE software platform. Since then, the store can use mobile and fixed RFID readers to check and replenish the stock in the 40000 pilot stores, and then inventory the inventory in real time.

Effect: improve inventory visibility, improve customer service level, and promote sales.

American Apparel soon benefited from Motorola RFID solutions. Store inventory level is good, sales performance has improved. At the same time, the company can make timely and accurate response to the market according to the customer's demand for store design, size and color. The Motorola RFID solution also helps American Apparel to better confirm the real-time buying behavior, thereby adjusting the inventory, making it easier for customers to find products and facilitate staff replenishment. Because some goods are misplaced in the store, Motorola RFID solution also helps stores solve the problem of finding products. In the past, the number of goods that could not be found in a particular color or size was 80 on average, but now it is reduced to less than 8.