Monday — March 19, 2018
Product and Merchandising Strategies
Moderated by Alvanon’s CEO, Janice Wang:
Innovations in Product Development
Leading retailers and branded manufacturers are taking a variety of new approaches to product development: They are employing tactics such as using data to inform product design, creating computer-generated prototypes to reduce lead times and deploying A/B testing tools to refine products before market launch. Some are even using direct input from the user community to create new product lines. In this session, we’ll hear from venture-backed retailers that are pioneering the use of nextgen technologies and techniques to reduce the risks in product development, improve speed to market and create differentiated products:
Founded in 2013 in Berlin, Lesara is an online retailer that sells fashion and lifestyle products in 24 markets across Europe. Lesara has raised $66 million in funding. Lesara is known for being one of the pioneers in agile retailing: its vertically integrated supply chain takes only two weeks to go from idea to product. Join us to hear from the Founder and CEO as he shares his data-driven approach to fashion. He will address how Lesara is using AI and algorithms to analyze data from myriad sources such Google trends, social media and fashion bloggers—as well as data from the company’s own web analytics and inventory management systems—to identify trends in real-time. He will also discuss how the much shorter time-to-market enables Lesara to produce smaller quantities at a time rather than larger orders that may not sell.
Minted was founded in 2007 and has raised $90 million in funding—the company’s primary product is stationery but has since expanded to other categories such as wall art prints and party decor. Minted uses a crowdsourcing model for designing new products and holds regular design challenges that are open to artists and designers. Visitors to the website vote on design submissions with the winning designs being sold online. In this session, the Founder and CEO will discuss her unique approach to product development and how it helps her differentiate the company’s products as well as create a loyal and engaged community.
Moderator:
Janice Wang, CEO, Alvanon, Inc.
