News

American Apparel implements RFID tool from Impinj

August 12, 2013

UHF Gen2 radio frequency identification technology provider Impinj Inc. today announced that retailer American Apparel is using a a fully automated Senitron inventory visibility solution powered by Impinj to significantly improve inventory accuracy and on-shelf availability.

The wide-area RFID system brings immediate benefits to American Apparel's operations by improving in-store visibility and security and by eliminating manual cycle counting, which will empower in-store staff to dedicate more time to customer service and sales-related activities, according to a company press release.

"The Senitron solution delivers on the dream of hands-free, full-time inventory visibility," said Stacey Shulman, CTO of American Apparel. "We get accuracy levels that meet or exceed handheld readers, in real-time and with less work. We've been amazed at the effortless accuracy of the Senitron system to not only deliver counts but also item locations. This enables a wealth of possibilities in our roadmap toward a robust omnichannel shopping experience for our customers."

After more than six months of performance testing in select American Apparel locations, the retailer recently began chain-wide deployment of Senitron's system, which utilizes fixed RFID antennas mounted among a store's ceiling track lights. The automated inventory system employs several of Impinj's Speedway readers per store, with each reader energizing 12 to 15 antennas via multiple Speedway Antenna Hubs. The readers transfer information from tags into a database that provides accurate, real-time, full-store RFID coverage, including detailed tag location, 24 hours per day.

By tagging 98 percent of a store's 75,000 products with Impinj's Monza chips, American Apparel and Senitron leverage key benefits of Impinj's GrandPrix platform, further enhancing system performance. GrandPrix is the integrated set of Gen2-compliant hardware, software, application interfaces and intellectual property that together deliver identification and location solutions.

During performance testing by American Apparel, the Senitron system's continuous monitoring of tagged inventory helped both staff and customers to locate merchandise and thereby uncover a substantial number of missing items. This enhanced inventory visibility, in conjunction with data from point-of-sale, enables measurement of merchandising effectiveness and improves business analytics. Senitron's system also improved security by monitoring items in all locations of stores, including dressing rooms, restrooms and exits, through non-visual means, the company said. By automatically taking complete, accurate, real-time inventory information, including item location, Senitron's system freed staff to spend more time interacting with customers and selling. American Apparel plans to deploy the RFID solution in all North American stores, the announcement said.

"Retail executives and managers must know if inventory is positioned to sell at all times in order to delight customers and manage their business," said Kambiz Saghezi, CEO of Senitron. "We are pleased to partner with Impinj to deliver continuous, automated inventory monitoring to clients such as American Apparel who want to elevate service standards in retail."

Learn more about RFID technology.