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 about the Clarity ARS solution for retail.

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."

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."

By Robert Hoskins

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