PITTSBURGH & NEW ALBANY, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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 .
