OPTIMIZE PRICING

Crunch
Markdown Assistant

Increase revenue, push margins, and clear out the right stocks just in time, with the help of an AI-driven assistant that recommends the most appropriate end-of-season discounts or price markdowns for each item in your catalog.

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Our platform is used by fashion industry leaders such as

Why?

Why do your fashion retail teams need AI-driven markdown recommendations?

Setting the appropriate price markdowns at the end of a season is challenging. It is the team's last chance to fix decisions that did not turn out as expected and achieve objectives. The process is complex and prone to errors. Valuable time is lost on non-value-adding tasks, and overall results can become another disappointment.

The current way of working is ready for an upgrade. Here is how.

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Meet The Assistant S
MEET THE CRUNCH MARKDOWN ASSISTANT

Get the best price markdown recommendations for each item in your catalog to meet end-of-season objectives.

The Crunch Markdown Assistant suggests the most appropriate price markdown for every item in your catalog.

The optimal discount that takes into account historical information, current season performance, your unique business rules, and your chosen objectives. By automating manual tasks and taking over the heavy lifting, the solution enables better results and cuts the time spent on the job by half.

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PRODUCT TOUR

Sell, don’t shelve

Put an end to those endless spreadsheets and the manual gathering of data. Discover a clever & and easy-to-use fashion retail platform that levers data & AI to perform the dirty work for you. Say goodbye to the guesswork and start flirting with certainty.

Define your markdown strategy with ease

Choose your markdown optimization objective and introduce your unique set of business rules. Define how differenct product groups should be treated, all with a few clicks of a button.

Understand what & when to discount

Discover quickly what items are in need of a price markdown, at what level, and what impact to expect in order to obtain your optimization objective.

Run different simulations in order to make informed decisions

Run simulations under different markdown strategies and business rules and compare outcomes. Better understand the trade-offs between rest stock, turnover and margin.

Choose your markdown optimization objective and introduce your unique set of business rules. Define how differenct product groups should be treated, all with a few clicks of a button.

Define Strategy

Discover quickly what items are in need of a price markdown, at what level, and what impact to expect in order to obtain your optimization objective.

Understand

Run simulations under different markdown strategies and business rules and compare outcomes. Better understand the trade-offs between rest stock, turnover and margin.

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Review and override price markdown suggestions

Use the different dashboards to ensure your teams can apply their wisdom & experience to review markdown recommendations before they take effect.

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High level overview dialogue executives

Use the different dashboards to review recommendations, discuss strategy with team members or present scenario’s to the executive team. Approve and engage, with the click of a button.

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Automate low value-adding tasks

Automatically gather data from a variety of sources and obtain insights from an easy-to-navigate interface. Stop wasting time on scanning and adjusting a sheer endless flow of spreadsheet columns

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Easily harmonize or differentiate prices across categories, channels & countries

Easily review relations between items in categories, channels & countries and adjust where desired.

What our users say

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“What I like most about the Crunch Markdown Assistant is how easy it has become to talk with my team, using the clear summaries the tool provides. With that knowledge, I can confidently step to our board to make well-informed strategic choices.”

 

Client Case Head Shot - S&S (300 x 300 px)
Rose Smits

Omnichannel & Trade Director, Scotch & Soda

torfs

“We were able to achieve a +30% revenue & +8% margin increase, applying the price markdowns suggested by the solution”
Client Case Head Shot - Torfs (300 x 300 px)
Luc De Baets

Buying Director, Torfs

Hubspot Featured Client Case - Scotch&Soda (1080 x 1080 px)
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

Learn how the Crunch Markdown Assistant transformed setting price markdowns at Scotch & Soda

In this video, Rose, Omnichannel & Trade Director, and Marijke, Planning & Buying Manager, at Dutch fashion retailer Scotch & Soda explain why they chose to introduce the Crunch Markdown Assistant and how it enabled the team to make confident decisions in challenging times.


-> Watch the video

How we set up your
Crunch Markdown Assistant

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We setup of the appropriate connections between systems

We gather relevant retail data from various sources, bring it together in a data warehouse and prepare it to be used by the assistant.

-> Book your discovery call
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What progress is your team looking to make?

In a discovery call we’ll take about 30 minutes of your time to learn about the objectives, challenges, and pains you encounter. Let’s find out how our platform can meet your requirements.

-> Book your discovery call
Group 16

What progress is your team looking to make?

In a discovery call we’ll take about 30 minutes of your time to learn about the objectives, challenges, and pains you encounter. Let’s find out how our platform can meet your requirements.

-> Book your discovery call
Group 16

What progress is your team looking to make?

In a discovery call we’ll take about 30 minutes of your time to learn about the objectives, challenges, and pains you encounter. Let’s find out how our platform can meet your requirements.

-> Book your discovery call
Group 16

What progress is your team looking to make?

In a discovery call we’ll take about 30 minutes of your time to learn about the objectives, challenges, and pains you encounter. Let’s find out how our platform can meet your requirements.

-> Book your discovery call

FAQs

What are price markdowns in retail?

A price markdown or retail markdown is the permanent reduction of the selling price of an item, to anticipate the end of its presence in a retailer’s seasonal or overall assortment. It is typically used to clear out inventory or stock by the end of a season or the end of its life cycle.

Contrary to regular discounts or promotions which are often ‘temporary discounts’ or aimed at a specific customer segment, price markdowns are ‘permanent discounts’. They are used at the end of a season - or the end of a product life cycle - to increase sales velocity and sell out the item by a given end date.

In some retail & e-commerce sub-sectors such as fashion, price markdowns are essential as the assortment is seasonal & trend-sensitive, and the residual value of a given item can be a mere fraction of what it was at the peak of the season. In customer electronics, on the other hand, there is the pressure of technological advancements that impacts the life cycle of a product.

How should I understand the term 'markdown optimization'?

Markdown optimization is the process of setting the appropriate markdown at a given moment in time. Every retailer needs to balance the impact of a price markdown on the sale of that item.

If a price markdown is too high, the item might start to fly off the racks. Such creates turnover but might clear out stocks before the end of the season. And it probably cuts too deep in margins. The retailer is confronted with empty shelves or has to mark the item on its webshop as ‘out-of-stock’, possibly losing clients to another retailer.

If a price markdown is too low, the stock clearance may take too long and leave a retailer with left-over inventory that has lost a large portion of its value. The loss in turnover might hamper the retailer's ability to purchase enough inventory for the next season to come.

Our markdown optimization solution, therefore, suggests what the most optimal price markdown is, week over week. Gathering a tremendous amount of data on all items, it applies machine learning algorithms to predict how customer demand will respond to a given markdown. As we sift that information through various business and operational filters and match it with more recent data, price markdown suggestions emerge.

How will you ensure that this markdown optimization works for my specific organization?

Every retail or e-commerce operation has a unique situation in which it operates. Be it business and operational constraints or specific strategic rules. That is why we take you through the various step with both technical & sector-specific business experts.

How does the markdown algorithm work?

There are several components to the markdown algorithm. The core of the algorithm is responsible to predict future demand at different markdowns percentages.

In short, it will detect patterns in price elasticity and sales seasonality for previous sales seasons. Afterwards, those trends will be applied to the new collection. These future sales predictions will be combined with the sales performance of the new collection and the remaining inventory level for each product.

Finally, an optimization model will determine the best possible markdown for every product, while taking into account operational constraints such as a maximum markdown percentage per product group.

How many years of sales history do we need for the algorithm?

The absolute minimum would be 1 or 2 years of sales history. In the perfect scenario, we can use 4 or 5 years. 

How will Crunch ensure my team is on board?

For retailers taking the step to introduce a new piece of software that is able to partially or even entirely take over tasks, it is important to get the full team on board.

In the initial stages of a project, we ensure that the objectives of both the business and technical stakeholders are aligned.

Next, we’ll go through an onboarding process together, going from the initial data connection to the final delivery of markdown recommendations for the new collection.

Along the way, we’ll have several touchpoints and training sessions to make sure the merchandise team is fully up to speed and can use the tool independently.

If I want to have the tool ready for the next sales season, when do I need to get started?

Each situation is different, as retailers currently work with a variety of systems in a variety of environments. Yet, we are convinced that we can get most projects up and running in 4-6 weeks' time.

Still have a question?

Do not hesitate to contact us!