First Insight announced today the launch of its Optimized Line Planning (OLP) solution in collaboration with PTC, a global technology provider of the ThingWorx® IoT platform and FlexPLM® product lifecycle management (PLM) software for retail, fashion, footwear, apparel, and consumer products.
"We want to provide actionable insights to retailers as early as possible in the product decision cycle. With Optimized Line Planning we can now offer that kind of guidance at the very first step of creating an assortment. By leveraging the design recommendations provided by OLP based on historical data streams and real-time consumer input, retailers can mitigate the risk in line planning where they have the least reliable data to inform their decisions," said Greg Petro, CEO of First Insight.
"We are excited to partner with First Insight to deliver an OLP solution to our customers and the industry, and to further advance PTC's retail transformation journey. This journey provides a roadmap for organizations to achieve a profile that delivers products in a season-less manner, facilitates personalized product offerings, and enables transparent supply chain execution," said Eric Symon, General Manager, Retail Business Unit, PTC. "This tool allows retailers and brand owners to understand which product attributes their customers value the most and how those attributes impact revenue -- a common challenge designers and merchandisers face season after season. This OLP solution will enable customers to drive tremendous value in building more successful assortments."
The Optimized Line Planning solution helps retailers and brands:
- Understand key characteristics of their customer base and how they impact revenue and margin.
- Inform the assortment strategy based on the understanding of the consumer.
- Create optimal line plans and design products guided by specific attribute recommendations from the tool.
OLP helps brands answer the question "What type of designs should I be exploring for my target consumers to maximize revenue?" The solution builds on the existing InsightTARGETING capabilities of First Insight to create buyer personas that enable more targeted offers based on consumer input on new products. By bringing together various data sources including First Insight testing data as well as historical sales and purchase history information and applying the powerful machine learning capabilities of ThingWorx®to this data set, it provides recommendations around the type of products to bring to market, with specific product design elements that will enable customers to maximize the financial impact of the assortment.
Optimized Line Planning leverages proven First Insight and PTC capabilities and is available for implementation now. First Insight and PTC have been collaborating on integrated solutions using First Insight and PTC FlexPLM since 2014.
