First Insight, Inc., a technology company transforming how leading
retailers make product investment and pricing decisions, today announced
a partnership agreement with leading global specialty retailer
Abercrombie & Fitch Co (NYSE: ANF). As part of the agreement, First
Insight will provide its consumer-driven predictive analytics to help
Abercrombie & Fitch make faster and more accurate design, buying and
pricing decisions, thereby reducing markdowns and mitigating risks
associated with new product introductions.
The partnership is based on Abercrombie’s confirmation of the accuracy
of First Insight’s solution during a thorough due diligence process. In
partnering with First Insight, Abercrombie & Fitch gains strategic
investment guidance on thousands of new products and designs. Through
online social engagement tools, First Insight enables Abercrombie &
Fitch to gather real-time consumer preference and pricing data on
candidate new products, months before products are launched in the
market. This data is filtered through First Insight’s predictive
analytic models to determine which products present the greatest
opportunity.
First Insight’s solution is now enabling Abercrombie & Fitch to:
-
Test new candidate products, in every product category, every week,
throughout the merchandising organization and the product development
lifecycle (design, selection, pricing, and buy depth).
-
Execute on its strategy to decrease promotions and increase average
unit retail prices.
“We are excited to be partnering with Abercrombie & Fitch, one of the
world’s leading brands in specialty retail,” said Greg Petro, President
and CEO of First Insight. “Our mission is to provide retailers such as
Abercrombie & Fitch with a fast, scalable solution that enables them to
leverage customer feedback and predictive analytics to make product
decisions with confidence. It is further exciting to see Abercrombie &
Fitch fully adopt and embrace our solution, and we look forward to
driving measurable results.”
“First Insight will be a critical element in the transformative changes
to our business,” said Gillian Galner, GVP of Abercrombie & Fitch. “By
using First Insight to identify more winning products and price them
appropriately, we are increasing speed to market with the right styles
which will yield increases in sales and margin. After evaluating the
solution for an extended period, we have confirmed the solution will
deliver a strong return on investment.”
About First Insight, Inc.
First Insight is the world’s leading solution provider empowering
companies to drive new product success by introducing the right products
at the right price. Through the use of online consumer engagement, the
First Insight solution gathers real-time consumer data and applies
predictive analytic models to create actionable insights, which drive
measurable value. Retailers, manufacturers and brands use the First
Insight solution to design, select, price and market the most profitable
new products for improved sales, margins and inventory turnover.
Customers include some of world’s leading department stores, brands, and
specialty and vertically integrated retailers. For further information,
please visit www.firstinsight.com
.
About Abercrombie & Fitch
Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is a leading global specialty retailer of
high-quality, casual apparel for Men, Women and Kids with an active,
youthful lifestyle under its Abercrombie & Fitch, abercrombie, Hollister
and Gilly Hicks brands. The company currently operates 890 stores in the
United States and 166 stores across Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia.
The Company also operates e-commerce websites at www.abercrombie.com
, www.abercrombiekids.com
, www.hollisterco.com
and www.gillyhicks.com
.
Copyright Business Wire 2014