WGSN, the global foresight business specialising in consumer, fashion and design trends, has launched a new platform for the fashion industry. WGSN StyleTrial enables rapid consumer feedback from a tailored demographic, to identify best sellers, poor performers, optimal price points and size ratios before orders are placed through crowd sourced validation.
Using the power of big data analytics and consumer panels to accurately predict the likely performance of items and to identify best sellers before they hit the shop floor, the WGSN StyleTrial brings clarity to one of the biggest risks facing retailers today – bad buying decisions. Consequently, the platform uses B2C big data to inform B2B decision making.
During 2014, the US fashion retail industry had approximately 40 per cent of its stock reduced or on promotion, representing $281.80 billion of sales not being made at full price. According to The Journal of Product Innovation Management, 40 per cent of all new products fail because most retailers and brands make new product decisions based on historical data and in-store testing only.
Sansan Chen, executive vice president of product at WGSN, stated: “With the retail industry battling a raft of challenges, WGSN StyleTrial will provide some much needed security and confidence. Historic data is a valued, core asset of many modern retailers who rightly use it to infer future insight, but as fashion gets ever faster and the consumer is better connected, better informed and more influential than ever before, retailers need a more accurate predictor.
“If the retail industry decreases inventory markdown (reduced or on promotion) by 10 per cent and gets it right this year, with consumer confidence returning in force, retailers can expect a greater share of full price sales, and higher margins as a result. With an estimated $731 billion consumer spend on clothing, footwear and accessories up for grabs, and with competition increasing and e-commerce growing in market share, no brand can afford to be the one that misses the mark.”
