Recent Posts by Alex Barnes

Four steps to infuse artificial intelligence into merchandise planning

In recent news, Nike made a shocking announcement that they were acquiring Celect, a predictive analytics and demand sensing software company, to fuel its consumer-direct offense strategy. The goal for Nike, despite their brand innovation and trendy fashion, is to better serve their customers on a more personal level by leveraging an AI platform to become hyper-focused on consumer behavior. This point of differentiation was underscored by Eric Sprunk, Nike, Inc. Chief Operating Officer, who stated:

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Revenue Growth Management Is Disrupting How Pricing and Promotions Are Deployed in the Market

Consumer Goods companies are seeking to leverage advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to gain a competitive edge as the industry continues to be hammered by disruption, changing consumer buying habits, and proliferation of indie brands.

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Pricing Strategy: The Second Step on Your Journey to Successful Pricing

In less than a week, over 40K individuals from more than 90 countries will descend on the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for NRF 2019 – the Big Show! Undoubtedly, many of these individuals will be looking for the latest and greatest innovations in retail that can help grow top line sales and increase bottom line profits. But many are also looking for ways to improve their strategies, so they can execute their way to results.

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Data Readiness: The First Step On Your Journey to Successful Pricing

Are you drowning in data? Do you feel overwhelmed – or underwhelmed – by the slew of options that claim to deal with your data problems? Particularly, in the area of pricing? It's the Era of Big Data, and many retailers are finding relief in new technologies like event stream processing or Hadoop.

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The Price is Right: Four Steps for Better Pricing Decisions

When I give presentations I sometimes use the concept of a lemonade stand because I’ve found it to be an effective yet simple way to explore the challenges retailers face when executing pricing decisions, embracing price optimization and finding ways to make strategic pricing decisions profitable.

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