In the 1950’s a young British man named Alan Turing introduced and explored the possibility of artificial intelligence—the concept that machines could access available information and apply reasoning to solve complex problems. While the development of AI moved slowly at first based on the limitations of current technology, when computers became powerful enough to store data and not only execute commands, AI and Machine Learning took off—especially in the retail industry.
The number one problem retailers and brands need AI to solve is clear: there are not enough winning products and too many markdowns. Last year alone, markdowns cost retailers and brands $300B. Until recently with the development of AI and Machine Learning for retail, there hasn’t been an accurate and cost-effective way to solve this problem. Point of Sale (POS) data only describes product performance, and in-store testing or traditional marketing research is expensive, lengthy, and slightly accurate at best. It’s high time retailers and brands try something new, cost-effective, quick, and accurate: First Insight’s predictive analytics solution for retail – the InsightSuite.
While the exact workings of our InsightSuite are a trade secret, we can share the basics. We test sketches, CADs, or photos of our customers’ pre-season products on our platform by engaging with customers through a brand’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System, social media, or third-party panels. After gathering the feedback, our proprietary algorithm powered by machine learning and AI combined with Bayesian modeling takes over and analyzes the results. In 24 to 48 hours, retailers and brands have the answer to their number one business problem. They understand which products are the winners and which will likely fail, and understand why through qualitative comments.
First Insight is ahead of the pack as the first provider of Predictive Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for Pre-Season Digital Product testing. Our accuracy is unmatched, thanks to years of experience and history in the industry. We have the largest collection of data points to inform our InsightSuite’s artificial intelligence processing. We collect over 8 million data points each month from consumers in 30+ countries giving product feedback, in addition to capturing the impact of product decisions that are made based on our data. All of this knowledge creates a feedback loop in our system to create a smarter, more accurate and more predictive platform that no other supplier can match.
Our InsightSuite platform consistently helps our customers improve product success anywhere from 30 to 100%. Our accuracy especially shined at David’s Bridal when the then-SVP and Chief Supply Chain Officer benchmarked First Insight’s ability to pick winning products over the merchant team alone. Mark Chrystal, who is now the Chief Analytics Officer at rue21, demonstrated this in his presentation at PI Apparel. Check it out:
Because our customers are confident in the accuracy of our results, customers like and Dick’s Sporting Goods use their test results to take product designs to the next level. Crocs leverages their results to refine and retest designs, including key collaborations, based on customer comments and price feedback—further pushing their creativity and differentiating their products. Dick’s Sporting Goods uses the data to make its products stand out and successfully pull business from the competition. When retailers and brands can depend on accurate results, innovation happens with data-driven confidence.
As the world’s leading AI and Machine Learning platform for digital pre-season product testing, our accuracy is unmatched. Retailers and brands from the U.S. to the U.K. and even India are benefiting from data-driven product assortments based on accurate AI and Machine Learning.
