SoundOut offers retail predictions

SoundOut, the company that gave the music industry reliable research and audience insights, has launched a  new specialist tool, SoundOut Retail for fashion brands and retailers. Building on the success of its music insight tool, which is now used by all major record labels and many radio stations in the

UK and US, SoundOut Retail aims to provide “accurate and objective” insight for fashion retailers on bestsellers before they hit stores to help with budget allocation.

Similar to how record labels decide on new releases and signings, retailers will use the software to help reduce the risk and uncertainty on high volume buys. The service works by providing consumer reviews and ratings through an intelligent software system that is linked to more than 500,000 “trusted” reviewers who are paid to provide fast, honest feedback on new releases.

By tapping into the best and most relevant consumer reviews, brands and retailers are able to test new collections, items and trends as quickly as overnight, to find out what customers want. The service has the ability to run both domestic and international reviews, as well as gaining detailed insight preference for size, colour and price, which allows retailers to reduce stock-outs and markdowns while improving sell-through and margins to meet sales targets.

David Courtier-Dutton, founder and CEO of SoundOut said: "We are very pleased with the accuracy of results in our recent retail trials, where we are able to strip out all the subjectivity associated with brand preference, supplying critical decision making data to retailers before they place orders.

“This data will help to move product margins and overall retail profitability in the right directions by optimising the volume of predicted best sellers. In many of our trials we have shown that SoundOut can help buyers and merchandisers make better buying decisions.”

SoundOut launches retail software to forecast bestsellers

For one of the trial’s, SoundOut Retail worked with campus-inspired university brand, Rampant Sporting to blind test a selection of styles from its spring collection to predict what the most popular items would be. This data gathered by SoundOut’s research was then compared to the brand’s actual sales rank, with 100 percent accuracy across all channels and 95 percent accuracy across e-commerce only.

Commenting on the service, Richard Hurtley, founder and managing director of Rampant Sporting, said: "We were truly impressed by the speed and the accuracy of the service provided by the SoundOut team. The way they can pull in reviews and get data on both product and other marketing questions is very impressive. The results could make a significant impact on the all-important bottom line."

Courtier-Dutton, added: “The music industry has successfully helped us prove this business model and recruited a huge number and variety of reviewers in the UK and US that reflect the customer base of many major fashion brands."