Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F) is rolling out RFID technology across stores around the world to boost its stock management strategy.

The technology, developed by Nedap, has been deployed in numerous stores in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.

The solution aims to simplify multi-store retail and supply chain management, giving the retailer access to real-time item-level insights into stock levels and exact locations of items.

The technology supports order fulfilment and inventory replenishment across back-of-house and front-of-house.

The move follows a 15-store pilot, with the apparel retailer beginning the wider rollout in June.

Full implementation of the technology is expected to complete before the end of the year.

A&F said that the technology supports its goal to improve omnichannel fulfilment, inventory accuracy, and on-shelf product availability.

“Inventory visibility is crucial to serving our customers seamlessly, both digitally and in-store,” said Lauren Morr, senior vice president of digital operations at A&F Co.

She added that the technology enables the company to optimise operations with "increased accuracy and visibility."

A&F Co. operates a number of well known brands, including Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie kids, Hollister, Gilly Hicks and YPB.

It has around 810 stores under these brands across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, as well as the e-commerce sites abercrombie.com, abercrombiekids.com and hollisterco.com.

Last month, the business announced a new agentic commerce partnership which will enable it to become one of the first in the world to make its products available to purchase via genAI chatbots like Perplexity.

During the company’s third quarter earnings call, A&F chief executive Fran Horowitz revealed that it is joining forces with PayPal and retail technology business Cymbio on the move.

The partnership comes as PayPal and Perplexity collaborate to allow US shoppers to checkout with certain retailers without leaving the answer engine.

PayPal said the move marks one of the first-ever "live, end-to-end AI-powered shopping experiences".

---