PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–First Insight, Inc., a global technology company transforming how leading retailers make product investment and pricing decisions, and John Lewis & Partners, today announced an expansion of their partnership. The announcement follows a successful validation test program that John Lewis conducted across its home and fashion categories.
“It’s crucial for retailers and brands to have a deep understanding of their customers and a data-driven decision-making process in order to succeed in today’s challenging economic environment,” said Greg Petro, CEO and founder of First Insight. “We’re very pleased to be expanding our partnership with John Lewis following a successful initial test phase. The retailer will now be able to use voice-of-the-customer analytics to make more informed decisions that will help differentiate its product assortment across numerous categories.”
The initial pilot enabled John Lewis to improve buy depths and optimize assortments in its womenswear and home categories. In addition, First Insight’s testing revealed insights about raw materials: the company discovered strong customer preferences on bedding fabric content and leveraged those insights in finalizing their line.
“We want to become even more data-driven in our decisions,” said Susan Young, Partner and Head of Trading Operations and Development at John Lewis. “In the trial we used the test results to optimize product and volume buying decisions for our Home and Fashion ranges. We will now expand the use of First Insight to further leverage their customer-driven insights to help our buyers create and select differentiated products.”
First Insight uses online social engagement tools to gather real-time preference, pricing and sentiment data on potential product offerings. The information is filtered through First Insight’s predictive analytic models to determine which products customers like best.
About First Insight, Inc.
First Insight is the world’s leading digital product testing and decision-making platform that empowers companies to incorporate the Voice of the Customer into the design, pricing, planning and marketing of new products. Through the use of online consumer engagement, the First Insight solution gathers real-time consumer data and applies predictive analytic models powered by AI to create actionable insights, which drive measurable value. Enterprises use the First Insight solution to design, select, price, plan and market the most profitable new products for reduced markdown rates and improved sales, margins and inventory turnover. Customers include some of world’s leading vertically integrated brands, sporting goods companies, department stores, mass merchant retailers and wholesalers. For further information, please visit www.firstinsight.com.
About The John Lewis Partnership
The John Lewis Partnership owns and operates two of Britain’s best-loved retail brands – John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners. Started as a radical idea nearly a century ago, the Partnership is the largest employee-owned business in the UK and amongst the largest in the world, with over 80,000 employees who are all Partners in the business. For all intents and purposes, the Partnership is a social enterprise; the profits made are reinvested into the business – for customers and Partners.
John Lewis & Partners operates 50 shops across the UK (37 department stores, 12 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2) as well as johnlewis.com. Waitrose & Partners has 338 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 61 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. Waitrose & Partners exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide and has nine shops which operate under licence in the Middle East. The retailer’s omnichannel business includes the online grocery service, Waitrose.com, as well as specialist online shops including waitrosecellar.com for wine and waitroseflorist.com for plants and flowers.