Latest news with #CentricSoftware
Fashion Value Chain
18 hours ago
- Business
- Fashion Value Chain
Centric Software Debuts AI Retail Platform at NRF Asia 2025
Centric Software® is unveiling its AI-powered concept-to-commercialization platform at NRF 2025: Retail's Big Show Asia Pacific, taking place from June 3–5 in Singapore. For the second year running, the enterprise tech leader will spotlight its integrated solutions tailored for the consumer goods industry—including fashion, luxury, home, footwear, food & beverage, and cosmetics. Centric's flagship PLM platform, along with tools like Centric Planning™, Pricing & Inventory™, Visual Boards™, Market Intelligence™, and PXM™, delivers real-time, data-driven support for strategic decision-making. These solutions are engineered to meet today's challenges—tariffs, shifting sourcing strategies, compliance pressures, and increasing consumer and sustainability demands. With the retail landscape in Asia undergoing rapid transformation, Centric Software equips brands and manufacturers with agile, AI-infused tools to optimize product development, accelerate time-to-market, and maintain profit margins—even amid disruption. Attendees can visit booth #1007 for demos and consultations across sectors, or catch President Fabrice Canonge's keynote on June 3, 1:45–2:15 PM at Expo Stage 3, titled 'Maximizing Profitability Amid Tariffs and Disruptions.' Customer Highlight: Singapore-based Phoon Huat Pte Ltd. has already adopted Centric PXM to streamline operations and improve speed-to-market. With over 18,000 global users, Centric's retail tech ecosystem continues to drive digital transformation at scale. Book demos or register with a discount: Visit Event Page
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Navigating Tariff Turbulence With Pricing Elasticity
Despite their dominance in the news, tariffs are not new. Companies have seen them rise and fall across the globe in the past, always adjusting costs and margins in response. What is new, however, is today's unprecedented rate of dynamic tariff movement—and the colossal tumult it is causing. That means you need a dynamic pricing strategy to adapt to the uncertainty. More from Sourcing Journal Why South Carolina's Textile Manufacturers Want to Talk To Scott Bessent Long Beach Mayor Says It Could Take Months to 'Untangle the Backlog' at Nation's Busiest Port Tech Tactics: Bluecore Brings AI Shopping Assistant Alby to Shopify Retailers 'When things are moving so fast and you don't have a good, certain understanding of what's happening, you need to be a little bit more responsive and agile,' said Ravi Rangan, chief technology officer of Centric Software, in the webinar Tariff Turbulence: Leveraging Technology and Pricing Elasticity to Thrive in 2025. 'It's a little bit like being caught in a fire in the theater. You don't start analyzing what to do; you [just] run for the exit. But you want to be prepared.' Market intelligence tools like Centric Market Intelligence are key to creating a macroeconomic context—providing information on external forces of the market, what's happening, what's trending, what are the competitive forces, not just in your category, but across the industry. First step, noted Jade Huang, VP, strategy & market intelligence, Centric Software, is to set a pricing baseline. This entails examining and reaffirming your specific brand's price positioning and strategy in relation to your competitors, as well as noting how competitive companies build out their respective pricing and assortment architecture, and what changes they might have made over time. How they managed significant disruptive events is especially pertinent. Tracking the basic white T-shirt as an example across a variety of brands, Huang looked at pricing and assortment breadth to spotlight significant clusters and overall philosophy. She found, for example, that ASOS' average price for a white T-shirt was $32.37, among 355 skus of shirts and tops. Gap, in contrast, focuses 52 percent of its white T-shirt assortment in the entry price point of $21 to $25, but with only 23 shirts and top skus (tighter, but still higher than Uniqlo's highly rationalized nine). Meanwhile, H&M, with 71 shirts and top skus, focuses on mass appeal, with 44 percent of its white T-shirts priced between $6 to $10, with entry price point as little as under $5. To understand the shift in prices and strategy over time, Huang then looked at price positioning from Q1 2020 to Q1 2025. This revealed that ASOS had diversified and spread out its risk by expanding white T-shirt price points across $16 to $35 today, instead of the strong $16 to $20 range focus from 2020, thus diversifying from a 41 percent single price point concentration. Major department stores, which source from thousands of small to large brands, also serve as important gauges of larger market shifts. Centric Market Intelligence revealed that in the last month, Macy's raised its average MSRP ticket for white T-shirts 'a whopping $11' from $42 to $53.' Fast-fashion Chinese retailer Shein, which no longer has the under $800 duty-free de minimis loophole on its side, raised its average white T-shirt price from $20 to $29 in just one week in April 2025 (a $9 increase)—a dramatic hike for a brand that has built its reputation on super low prices. Digging deeper, Centric's intelligence interpreted that evergreen items have longer-lasting appeal than fleeting trends, thus justifying the high white tee price hike. With the power to monitor the market and competitors in real time, especially around disruptions like tariffs, 'you can start to have some inferences on how [companies] are thinking about spreading out that cost and passing it to customers,' said Huang. In addition to focusing on external forces and outside competitive analysis, Centric also has tools for companies to look inward and analyze their own operations, something especially important for omnichannel retailers cross-channel in uncertain times. 'In addition to the probing and deep sensing from the outside, there's also the other parts of, how do I organize my product? How do I do the bill of material? How do I pick materials? How do I pick from multiple sources or from my supply chain, or shift supply chains? And how do I track to product development metrics and supply sustainability targets?' said Rangan. Any pricing strategy must also take the consumer into account, from their level of tolerance and their direct feedback. As consumers are managing their disposable income and budgets, smart companies should proactively and transparently communicate price hikes via direct email, website postings and/or social media. Centric's Digital Shelf Analysis (DSA) provides consumer feedback and review insights, which can also factor into the equation. With future and even current tariff levies constantly in flux, Centric tools allow companies to run various 'what if?' scenarios to be ready when disruption occurs. 'I can basically do simulations of different [sourcing and manufacturing] strategies. And within the strategy, simulate different tariff scenarios,' said Rangan. 'Especially if I'm expecting a tariff scenario that I need to be prepared for. So, if [a tariff] does enact in 90 days, then I can pull the trigger on [chosen scenario], and I have at least done my homework, and I can sleep at night.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How to Achieve ‘Smooth Sailing' Amid Tariff Turbulence
Import costs are going through the roof as the U.S.–China punitive tariff crisis escalates. In fact, tariffs on Chinese goods have surged into triple digits, effectively choking off trade and squeezing margins. In apparel alone, the average import duty more than doubled from 14.5 percent in 2024 to 30.6 percent in 2025—that's an extra $26 billion in costs hitting retailers' bottom lines. This tariff turbulence is forcing fashion and retail companies to make tough choices on pricing, sourcing and inventory amid unprecedented cost volatility. [REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR] More from Sourcing Journal Amid these headwinds, price elasticity has become a critical tool for guiding strategy. Unlike price sensitivity, which reflects perception and is qualitative, price elasticity reflects behavior and is a quantifiable measure of how demand responds to price changes. If a small increase in price causes demand to drop sharply, demand is elastic. If sales remain steady despite a price hike, demand is inelastic. Understanding how sensitive demand is to price changes—and how it differs by product and consumer segment—is now mission-critical for protecting revenue. Understanding elasticity helps retailers answer hard questions with clarity. Should a 10 percent cost increase be passed on—or will it cause demand to collapse? Which categories can support higher prices, and which risk losing volume? How does elasticity vary across product, consumer segments or economic environments? The key is marrying elasticity insights with market intelligence. By monitoring competitive shifts, watching for consumer strain and adjusting in real time, retail teams strike the right balance between price and profitability—while staying aligned with customer expectations. Register for 'Tariff Turbulence: Leveraging Technology & Pricing Elasticity to Thrive in 2025' on May 8, 2pm ET to learn how to translate elasticity metrics and AI market intelligence into real-world pricing, forecasting and sourcing decisions that directly safeguard margin, revenue and customer retention. Speakers include Ravi Rangan, chief technology officer, and Jade Huang, VP, strategy & market intelligence, both of Centric Software, and Kate Nishimura, senior news and features editor, Sourcing Journal. Watch for the webinar to learn:
Zawya
26-02-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Investcorp to sell software vendor Contentserv for $229mln
Investcorp, a leading global alternative investment firm, has announced that it has reached an agreement with US-based Centric Software for the sale of its majority stake in Contentserv, a leading provider of AI-fueled Product Information Management (PIM) and Product Experience Management (PXM) solutions. A Silicon Valley–based software company headquartered in California, the Centric Software is a subsidiary of French multinational software group Dassault Systèmes. Headquartered in Germany, Contentserv enables fast-moving consumer goods and other companies to create and manage product content intuitively and effectively by means of AI to optimize consumer experiences across all digital sales channels. With Contentserv solutions, retailers, brands and manufacturers are able to execute strategies such as more or simply better product offers, regions and sales channels for increased product sell-through. Contentserv users have reported ROI such as a 30% reduction in time to market, 70% faster catalogue creation, 75% more accurate product information and increased sales channel coverage in more languages. Since Investcorp's acquisition in 2019, the company has grown its recurring revenues approximately sixfold and today serves over 1,600 customers in 90 countries globally. In 2023, Contentserv completed the strategic add-on acquisition of Shoppingfeed in France, which significantly bolstered its European presence and expanded its product capabilities into the complementary feed management category, which has been very well received throughout its customer base. Yusef Al Yusef, Global Head of Distribution, Investcorp, said it has extensive experience in supporting technology businesses in Europe and across other key markets. "Contentserv is a dynamic business which has seen robust growth, becoming a leader of AI-fueled PIM and PXM solutions and we look forward to seeing their progress in the future. In the technology sector, we continue to see substantial opportunities to support promising companies in accelerating their growth," he noted. Georg Knoflach, Managing Director, Investcorp, said: "Our investment in Contentserv builds on a tradition of supporting fast-growing technology businesses in the DACH region, to accelerate growth, internationalize and expand into new product categories, both organically as well as through M&A." "Over the last five years Contentserv has grown rapidly and developed a market leading product offering, and we are delighted to see it well prepared for its next chapter with Centric Software," he added. Contentserv CEO Michael Kugler said: "Investcorp has been a wonderful partner for our growth over the last five years, helping us to continue our international expansion, to where we now stand as a global company." "Thanks to their support, we feel like we are in a stronger position as we join Centric Software, to double down on our product strategy and continue to the next, exciting chapter of Contentserv," he stated. Bahrain-based Investcorp is a global investment manager specializing in alternative investments across four asset classes: private equity, real assets, Credit (CLOs, Broadly Syndicated Loans & Structured Credit, and Middle-Market Direct Lending), and Liquid Strategies (Absolute Return Investments and Insurance Asset Management). It has a long history of investing in and supporting technology-enabled businesses, with notable investments including VEDA, NetRom Software, Zift Solutions and HWG Sababa. The sale of Contentserv follows previous successful exits in other DACH headquartered software companies, including Avira (sold to NortonLifelock) and Softgarden (sold to Grupa Pracuj). The transaction is expected to close by the end of Q1 2025 and is subject to customary regulatory and other closing conditions.-TradeArabia News Service Copyright 2024 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Trade Arabia
25-02-2025
- Business
- Trade Arabia
Investcorp to sell software vendor Contentserv for $229m
Investcorp, a leading global alternative investment firm, has announced that it has reached an agreement with US-based Centric Software for the sale of its majority stake in Contentserv, a leading provider of AI-fueled Product Information Management (PIM) and Product Experience Management (PXM) solutions. A Silicon Valley–based software company headquartered in California, the Centric Software is a subsidiary of French multinational software group Dassault Systèmes. Headquartered in Germany, Contentserv enables fast-moving consumer goods and other companies to create and manage product content intuitively and effectively by means of AI to optimize consumer experiences across all digital sales channels. With Contentserv solutions, retailers, brands and manufacturers are able to execute strategies such as more or simply better product offers, regions and sales channels for increased product sell-through. Contentserv users have reported ROI such as a 30% reduction in time to market, 70% faster catalogue creation, 75% more accurate product information and increased sales channel coverage in more languages. Since Investcorp's acquisition in 2019, the company has grown its recurring revenues approximately sixfold and today serves over 1,600 customers in 90 countries globally. In 2023, Contentserv completed the strategic add-on acquisition of Shoppingfeed in France, which significantly bolstered its European presence and expanded its product capabilities into the complementary feed management category, which has been very well received throughout its customer base. Yusef Al Yusef, Global Head of Distribution, Investcorp, said it has extensive experience in supporting technology businesses in Europe and across other key markets. "Contentserv is a dynamic business which has seen robust growth, becoming a leader of AI-fueled PIM and PXM solutions and we look forward to seeing their progress in the future. In the technology sector, we continue to see substantial opportunities to support promising companies in accelerating their growth," he noted. Georg Knoflach, Managing Director, Investcorp, said: "Our investment in Contentserv builds on a tradition of supporting fast-growing technology businesses in the DACH region, to accelerate growth, internationalize and expand into new product categories, both organically as well as through M&A." "Over the last five years Contentserv has grown rapidly and developed a market leading product offering, and we are delighted to see it well prepared for its next chapter with Centric Software," he added. Contentserv CEO Michael Kugler said: "Investcorp has been a wonderful partner for our growth over the last five years, helping us to continue our international expansion, to where we now stand as a global company." "Thanks to their support, we feel like we are in a stronger position as we join Centric Software, to double down on our product strategy and continue to the next, exciting chapter of Contentserv," he stated. Bahrain-based Investcorp is a global investment manager specializing in alternative investments across four asset classes: private equity, real assets, Credit (CLOs, Broadly Syndicated Loans & Structured Credit, and Middle-Market Direct Lending), and Liquid Strategies (Absolute Return Investments and Insurance Asset Management). It has a long history of investing in and supporting technology-enabled businesses, with notable investments including VEDA, NetRom Software, Zift Solutions and HWG Sababa. The sale of Contentserv follows previous successful exits in other DACH headquartered software companies, including Avira (sold to NortonLifelock) and Softgarden (sold to Grupa Pracuj).
