Marks & Spencer has collaborated with First Insight, Inc., and Optitex!
While First Insight, Inc. is a technology company transforming how companies make product investment, pricing and marketing decisions, Optitex is a provider of end-to-end fashion software including 2D CAD/CAM.
With this collaboration, the retailers will be able to leverage the combined power of both the technologies to increase speed to market, support digital workflow, create sustainable sampling process and reduce waste.
“Our partnership with Optitex allows retailers like Marks & Spencer to digitise their product development cycle, which eliminates the need to create and traffic physical samples, host showroom visits and conduct in-store product testing – all of which are crucial capabilities not only during the coronavirus outbreak, but also for long-term sustainability and efficiency,” said Greg Petro, CEO of First Insight.
The retailers had already integrated First Insight’s consumer-driven predictive analytics software solution for design, buying and pricing decision across categories like apparel, lingerie, footwear, accessories, food, home and beauty.
The solution has helped the retailer to test tens of thousands of products across more than 50 departments and plan their collection and assortment based on that. This has helped them achieve customers’ satisfaction and improve their product offerings according to the demand.
Based on the successful results from the testing, the retailer began using 3D CAD visualisation in its product testing for a number of departments.
The use of the technology resulted in increased test completion rates and boosted respondents’ comments by 50 per cent, therefore offering richer product feedback to the product development and merchant teams.
The technology has also helped in reducing the cost and lead time in the development process.
The use of 3D CAD solution can help companies reduce lead time from 24 weeks to 3 weeks for retailers, allowing them to increase their speed-to-market and their margins.
“We are excited to continue our relationship with First Insight and Optitex as we transition our strategy to a more digital product development-focused model,” said Elaine Wheeler, Head of Digital Product Development at Marks & Spencer.
