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Multibillion Dollar Retailer Transforms Merchandise Planning

Case Study

Multibillion Dollar Retailer Transforms Merchandise Planning

Segment

Lifestyle and Fashion, Grocery

Challenge

Improving sales forecast accuracy and preventing loss of sales due to stockouts

Product Used

The Results

0 %
Improved sales forecast accuracy
0 %
Increase in inventory sell-thru
0 %
Reduction in excess inventory
$ 0 mn
Potential sales loss averted in a year
$ 0 mn
Additional stocks transferred between stores

The Overview

The client is one of the leading retailers in the Middle East spread across 17 countries, operating in lifestyle and fashion retail businesses, with over 500+ stores serving over 750,000+ customers on a daily basis. The client was facing huge challenges in its merchandise planning and operations due its multi-format, multi-brand, and cross-industry retail profile.

One of the key challenges faced by the client was accommodating factors such as weather, promotions, events, inventory, etc. in sales forecasting, resulting in reduced OTB (open-to-buy).

Decisions on identifying the right products and determining optimal markdown was done based on limited understanding, leading to margin erosion.

Stockouts in some stores and overstocking in others was a common occurrence due to missing single view of inventory across stores, leading to potential loss of sales.

The client was looking to iron out the challenges with an AI-driven solution that could give accurate, reliable, and timely insights to improve the merchandising planning process and decision-making.

Transformation to Algorithmic Merchandising

ADA Global’s Merchandise Analytics platform fit in perfectly as it provided deep insights for smart decisioning related to sales, inventory, price, and promotions. ADA Global enhanced sales forecasting with its ensemble-based ML algorithm that captures new variables such as product lifecycle stages and external factors like promotions, price changes, weather, etc. With the algorithmic approach, the client was able to forecast sales accurately across store, product, and SKU at an accuracy rate of over 95%.

ADA Global implemented its ML-based markdown optimization engine that identifies the right candidates for markdown based on product lifecycle and predicts the right level of markdown for SKUs. For new products, product hierarchy and attribute methodology were used to predict the right level of markdown. With an improved markdown planning, the client witnessed an improvement of sellthrough by 10%.

ADA Global’s inter-store transfer solution enabled predictive insights on stock levels and recommendation on inter-store transfers based on demand and current stock levels. Based on the recommendations, the client was able to transfer an additional $6 Mn+ worth of stocks to relevant stores and reduce loss of sales by over $20 Mn.

With ADA Global’s Algorithmic Merchandising Platform, the client has been able to create virtuous cycles across merchandising planning and operations, resulting in improved profit margins, cash flow, and reduced loss of sales.

Content
The Results
The Overview
Transformation to Algorithmic Merchandising
Get in touch

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Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Drives a 13% Lift in AOV Across 6 Brands by Personalizing Key Commerce Touchpoints

Case Study

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Drives a 13% Lift in AOV Across 6 Brands by Personalizing Key Commerce Touchpoints

Segment

Fashion & Lifestyle

Challenge

To personalize the key commerce touchpoints of product recommendations, search, category pages, and content.

The Results

0 %
lift in recommendations driven AOV on Pantaloons and The Collective
0 %
of attributable sales on Pantaloons
0 %
attributable sales on The Collective
0 %
lift in Revenue Per 1,000 views for AI-driven recommendations vs merchandised recommendations on Pantaloon

The Client

  • ABFRL’s vision is to satisfy Indian consumer needs in lifestyle and fashion with product offerings from premium brands.
  • The retailer has embarked on a digital transformation journey with a high focus on delivering personalized omnichannel customer experiences.
  • After a rigorous selection process, ABFRL chose Ada Global as their technology partner as the latter checked all the boxes for product depth and breadth, innovation, and customer success references.

The Solution

Personalizing All Path-to-Purchase Commerce Touchpoints

  • ABFRL has deployed Ada Global’s AI-powered personalization suite, which comprises:
  • These solutions are live across the ABFRL brands – Pantaloons, The Collective, and Super App.
  • Ada Global’s solutions combine real-time browsing behavior with enterprise-wide customer data to create real-time, unified customer profiles that guide contextual, individualized experiences across all customer channels—including website, app, email, and in-store.
  • The solutions offer the retail industry’s only no-code Data Science Workbench and Configurable Strategies, which help ABFRL’s marketing and merchandising teams build, test, and iterate personalization strategies on the fly.

Personalization Use Cases on the Pantaloons Online Store

Pantaloons is one of India’s largest fashion store brands. The brand has launched ‘Style Finder’ that allows shoppers to specify their preferred categories and the occasion, and view personalized product recommendations.

This feature has significantly improved product discovery in a time when consumers expect brands to make every experience feel personal.

Other examples of personalized experiences on Pantaloons:

The ‘Pick up where you left off’ placement on the home page helps a returning shopper resume their journey instead of having to start over.

Recommendation placement for similar products on Product Detail Pages.

Placement for ‘Deals of the Day’ with offers on products a shopper will likely be interested in.

Complementary product recommendations on the PDP.

 

Personalized product sorting in search results.

Search results for “trousers” without personalization

Search results for “trousers” with personalization

The ‘Shop the Look’ feature allows a shopper to view complementary products and complete the look.

Helping Shoppers Experience 4 Popular Brands in 1 Intuitive ‘Super App’

Super App allows shoppers to seamlessly switch between four popular and sought-after brands — Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, and Peter England—on the same website or app.

Shoppers can view personalized products and add items across the four brands to a common cart and complete their purchase.

Some examples of personalization on Super App:

While setting up their account, shoppers can set their preferences for color, categories, size, etc. The personalization engine uses this information, along with the shopper’s browsing patterns and purchase history, to make the most relevant recommendations.

Typically, on most commerce websites/ apps, shoppers have to visit a PDP to find recommendations for similar products. On Super App, however, while viewing various products on a category page, shoppers can just click on the ‘View Similar’ option near a product card, which opens a pop-up containing recommendations for similar products.

Category recommendations on the home page are displayed as per the individual shopper’s tastes. The order of categories changes dynamically with respect to changes in the shopper’s behavioral and purchase patterns.

Personalized content on the home page.

Unifying the Online & Offline Shopping Experience with The Collective & Super App

  • Most retailers tend to think of a customer channel in isolation. ABFRL, however, has seamlessly unified online and offline, delighting customers with unique and memorable experiences.
  • For instance, The Collective (India’s first, and now the largest, multi-brand luxury retail store) and Super App have a feature called ‘Store Mode’ on their websites. The feature allows online shoppers to view personalized products from a certain physical store, and have products delivered to their homes.

The Future

In the next phase, ABFRL plans to deploy Ada Global’s personalization solutions on four more properties – Van Heusen Intimates (a provider of innerwear and athleisure for men and women), Forever 21 (a global fast fashion brand), Jaypore, and Reebok.

Content
The Results
The Client
The Solution
Personalization Use Cases on the Pantaloons Online Store
Helping Shoppers Experience 4 Popular Brands in 1 Intuitive ‘Super App’
Unifying the Online & Offline Shopping Experience with The Collective & Super App
The Future
Get in touch

“Ada Global’s AI-infused personalization tech has helped us individualize all path-to-purchase digital commerce touchpoints—search, recommendations, browse, and content—to deliver a more holistic and connected customer experience.”

Varun Rajwade
AVP
Product, Design & Digital CX at ABFRL

“Shoppers today expect their digital shopping experience to be quick, seamless, and personalized as per their individual tastes and intent. Ada Global’s end-to-end personalization solution was the perfect fit, given our massive scale and speed requirements.”

Praveen Shrikhande
Chief Digital & Information Officer
ABRFL

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0 %
Reduction in out-of-stock across stores
0 %
increase in revenue

400+ Retailers & Brands Across the World Trust Ada Global

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