COVID19 is disrupting the UK's clothing industry to an unprecedented extent. To survive, companies must make faster decisions in a rapidly changing landscape. Retailers agree on which decisions are a priority but don't have the adequate data, models & processes to respond in a timely manner. Their data sits in siloed systems, is slow to access and is missing essential attributes. This project sets out to create a new knowledge pipeline & set of data models, currently not available or possible using generic modelling. The objective is to give retailers more certainty and precision in their decision making, creating greater liquidity and operational stability. Ultimately this project delivers on mitigating the damage impact of COVID19, as best as possible. It also gives retailers a new tool set which moves them closer towards demand-driven/predictive forecasting, which will help optimise their supply chains in the future. The effects of the "extension for impact" funding will be to aid increasing the impact on the fashion retail industry and all the stakeholders affected by the plight of the industry by increasing the speed to market of the innovations described above.

Today’s shoppers are faced with a vast number of products which can lead to an overwhelming shopping experience. They also buy across several retailers and have multiple purchase paths. Retailers attempt to help by providing personalised recommendations from their product catalogue, however this is currently restricted to online and is limited by data sets specific to each retailer. This research project aims to demonstrate a totally new approach to personalisation technology, based on Portable & Connectable Profiling. We plan to create a framework in which the full data sets available (instore, online, behaviourial & preference data from multiple retailers) is combined and modelled to provide a qualitative advance in predictions of what a shopper is mostly likely to love and keep. The project follows a customer-led approach and is in collaboration with a number of leading high street retailers, eager to push the boundaries of what data/technology can do to improve the customer experience. The deliverable will demonstrate significant revenue potential for UK retailers and an application that will help shoppers to find exactly what they seek, more quickly and intuitively.