Sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals are quickly becoming apparel’s top priorities. Now, one firm says its platform applications are empowering brands to gain greater insight into the true success of these initiatives.
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First Insight, a technology provider that offers product testing solutions helping retailers and brands use “voice of the customer” feedback to improve product design, merchandising and pricing, says its customers are reducing sample production costs by up to 70 percent using its Next-Gen XM platform.
“Today’s consumers expect—and even demand—that the brands they invest in will act with the health of our planet in mind,” said Greg Petro, First Insight CEO. “With the First Insight platform, companies gain the double benefit of delighting their customers and operating much more efficiently, increasing profits while reducing their environmental impact.”
First Insight, which works with Wolverine Worldwide and Marks & Spencer, said that one of its clients using the platform to test products before launch discovered through the Risky Product Alert feature that its customers found a particular design to be offensive.
By detecting the problem in the testing stage, the retailer was able to quickly halt development before consumers could view and buy the product, avoiding both the “substantial” environmental impact and cost of reverse logistics and product disposal, in addition to the potential hit to brand image and loyalty.
