(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) plans to roll out electronic tags to keep track of individual garments like jeans and underwear, in a move that would help the retail giant control its inventories better, the Wall Street Journal said.

Beginning in August, Wal-Mart will place removable radio-frequency ID tags on individual garments that can be read by a handheld scanner, the Journal said.

The tags will help Wal-Mart workers to quickly learn which garments are missing from the shelves, the paper said.

The aim of rolling out the electronic tags is to ensure shelves are optimally stocked and inventory tightly watched, according to the Journal.

If successful, the electronic tags will be used for other products at Wal-Mart's more than 3,750 U.S. stores, the paper said.

"This ability to wave the wand and have a sense of all the products that are on the floor or in the back room in seconds is something that we feel can really transform our business," Raul Vazquez, the executive in charge of Wal-Mart stores in the western United States, told the paper.

Wal-Mart could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Valerie Lee)