SAS® Merchandise Allocation supports Aéropostale’s continued growth

The Premier Business Leadership Series, LAS VEGAS (Oct. 28, 2009) – With SAS® Merchandise Allocation software as a core component of its business analytics approach, Aéropostale Inc. (NYSE: ARO), a mall-based specialty retailer of casual and active apparel for young women and men, has continued to experience strong, sustained sales growth, despite a weakened economy. The software from SAS, the leader in business analytics, provides Aéropostale’s management team with greater visibility into customer demand at its more than 900 Aéropostale stores. This allows Aéropostale to continue to meet growing demand by delivering the right merchandise to the right store at the right time.

Year to date, Aéropostale’s same-store sales have increased 12 percent compared to a same-store sales increase of 10 percent in the same period last year. Such eye-popping sales numbers, rare in retail lately, crown 11 consecutive years of positive, same-store sales growth at Aéropostale.
“SAS Merchandise Allocation improved the allocation accuracy of our initial floor sets by ensuring that our customers are able to purchase the styles they want when they want them” said Barbara Pindar, Senior Vice President of Planning and Allocation at Aéropostale.

Today’s announcement came at The Premier Business Leadership Series event in Las Vegas, a business conference presented by SAS that brings together more than 600 attendees from the public and private sectors to share ideas on critical business issues.

SAS® Merchandise Allocation
SAS Merchandise Allocation provides retailers the ability to fulfill demand by facilitating distribution of the right merchandise to the right stores and channels. Allocations created through this solution are based on fashion and seasonal trends; customer demand; and store, channel and location attributes. Using SAS Merchandise Allocation, retailers can optimize allocations for each product at the store-size level, increase productivity through automation, and reduce distribution costs.

SAS® Size Optimization
To further enhance the accuracy of vendor order and product distribution, Aéropostale recently made a second major business analytics purchase: SAS® Size Optimization, which includes SAS® Size Profiling and SAS® Pack Optimization. “SAS Size Optimization will be used to enhance the accuracy of our vendor orders and further improve store product allocation accuracy at the SKU level.” said Pindar. SAS Size Optimization is built on two primary software applications: SAS Size Profiling and SAS Pack Optimization. SAS Size Profiling automatically generates store-specific size profiles from multiple product perspectives including department, class, style and color to ensure the highest precision of relative size demand for each product. SAS Pack Optimization indicates the best supply decisions by determining the ideal order quantities of each available shipping case, including combinations of multi-sized and single-sized configurations to best meet individual store’s size needs across multiple deliveries.

About Aéropostale
Aéropostale, Inc. is a mall-based, specialty retailer of casual apparel and accessories, principally targeting 14- to 17-year-old young women and men through its Aéropostale® stores and 7- to 12-year-old kids through its P.S. from Aéropostale™ stores. The Company provides customers with a focused selection of high-quality, active-oriented, fashion and fashion basic merchandise at compelling values. Aéropostale® maintains control over its proprietary brands by designing, sourcing, marketing and selling all of its own merchandise. Aéropostale® products can only be purchased in its Aéropostale stores and online at www.aeropostale.com. P.S. from Aéropostale™ products can be purchased in P.S. from Aéropostale™ stores and online at www.ps4u.com. The Company currently operates 891 Aéropostale stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico, 39 Aéropostale stores in Canada and nine P.S. from Aéropostale stores in three states.

Leading clothing retailer also selects SAS® Size Optimization