From Inception to ROI Innovation: The Remarkable Journey of WAIR

In August 2021 we announced the launch of WAIR and May 2023 we explained more about the AI Replenisher - WAIRs Flagship Solution

WAIR has reached a significant milestone in its growth and they are thrilled to announce a new phase of maturity, accompanied by a refreshed website, logo, and overall brand identity.

WAIR it all started..

Mitch van Deursen, the founder of WAIR and CEO at Shoeby, personally witnessed the inefficiencies in the fashion retail industry. He strongly believed that the industry required higher net profit margins while also prioritising sustainability.

In 2017, he started on an experimental journey with Sander van Grinsven and the JADS University. They shared a strong conviction that Data Science (intelligence on scale) held the key to the industry's future, and their belief was ultimately validated.

In 2019, Mitch and Sander joined forces with BrainCreators to develop two MVP’s (Minimum Viable Product). At that time, their solutions were referred to as 'Digital Employees' to enhance their accessibility. They had two key offerings: 'The Digital Stylist,' providing visual AI-based recommendations for ecommerce platforms, and the 'Digital Sales Forecaster' (The foundation model of the AI Replenisher), optimising stock levels on shop floors by automatically adjusting the min/max settings in your existing ERP system.

Among these offerings, the AI Replenisher showed the strongest product-market fit, prompting them to focus their efforts on this solution due to limited resources and the need to make strategic decisions.

In 2020, they tested the AI Replenisher (ForecastGPT-1) at Shoeby and the results weren’t great. WAIR’s forecast accuracy reached 70%, while with Shoeby’s traditional replenishment method this was 78%! After extensive research on ForecastGPT-1 and reaching a max of 84% they have concluded that it’s simply not good enough nor a breakthrough. Time for hard work and a new approach!

In 2021, after the WAIR-team recognizing that they were nearing a limitation in improving the accuracy of our predictions using traditional machine learning, they made the strategic decision to transition to a new deep learning model and pooling data from all possible sources. Thanks to this approach they have created an advanced unified model (ForecastGPT-2) they achieved a breakthrough forecast accuracy of 95%!

Beginning of 2022 - They validated their product with our first launching customers (Daka) and at the end of the year they launched WAIR as an independent company.

WAIR are they now?

Through ongoing discussions with retailers, brands, and partners, they consistently gather validation of the existence of the inefficient inventory problems. Existing solutions either demand extensive implementation periods and fall short in terms of the desired level of intelligence.

This validation fuels their continuous growth across all segments: WAIR for Retail, Brands and for Partnerships. Join them at their stunning new office in Amsterdam, where the coffee is always warm (or cold if you prefer iced coffee during the summer)!

WAIR are they going?

WAIR continues its mission to make existing business processes more efficient by incorporating intelligence into them. In other words, their solutions provide significant business value and are easy to integrate and adopt because they don't change the process itself; they simply enhance it with intelligence.

They anticipate launching their AI Redistribution solution in the fourth quarter of 2023. With this solution, you will gain valuable insights on redistributing your stock if it ends up in a store where it either doesn't sell or doesn't sell quickly enough. It's important to note that if you are already utilising the AI Replenisher, your need for redistribution will be significantly reduced compared to using traditional replenishment methods.

They have a bustling Q4 ahead as they prepare for the launch of the AI Product Describer. This powerful but simple tool is designed to assist ecommerce managers by automatically generating product descriptions and tags using an image. Notably, the AI Product Describer optimises the generated text for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It offers seamless usability as it is connected to your ERP system, ensuring a user-friendly experience. Furthermore, it fuels the ForecastGPT-2 model with more information.

In Q1 of 2024, their primary focus will be on launching the AI Channel Predictor. This powerful tool predicts the optimal sales channels (physical store, webshop, or marketplace) for your products, taking into account the unique dynamics of each channel. By doing so, it aims to maximise your sell-through rate, ultimately optimising your sales margin and revenue.

They will initiate the implementation of the AI Initial Distributor in Q2-2024. You might wonder why they start relatively late with this process. The reason is simple: it is a critical process. Getting the initial distribution right is essential because any errors can result in the need for more replenishments and redistributions, both of which incur significant costs. That is precisely why they have built and refined all the preceding solutions. They have learned valuable lessons from them, ensuring a more informed and efficient approach to the Initial Distribution phase.