American Apparel Inc., a company known for its vertically integrated business model and "Made in Downtown LA" clothing, furthers its brand by rolling out radio frequency identification (RFID) at the item-level. American Apparel plans to implement its RFID inventory system across each of its 17 stores in the New York metropolitan area over the next three months, with plans to eventually deploy the solution to an additional 120 North American locations.The integrated solution being delivered by Vue Technology is comprised of TrueVUE hardware and software products, fixed and mobile RFID readers and antennas from Motorola's Enterprise Mobility business, and tags and printers from Avery Dennison. The solution enables American Apparel to track individual items as they are tagged at the company's manufacturing facility in Los Angeles, received in its retail stores, stored in the stock rooms at the stores, and then placed onto the sales floor and ultimately sold at the point-of-sale (POS).
The initial deployment of American Apparel's roll-out took place at the company's Columbia University location in New York City. To date, over 40,000 individual pieces of merchandise have been tagged so that store personnel can use fixed and mobile RFID readers to track inventory on a real-time basis, contributing to a well-stocked store and improving customer service through timely responses to customer questions regarding in-store merchandise.
