Inventory optimization machine learning tool sharpens pricing

In a sea of vendors who promise to optimize e-commerce and boost sales, wading through the advertisements to find the right match for the right process can be incredibly difficult. German-based international clothing retailer Orsay recently set out on a journey toward inventory optimization through machine learning tools. They chose to automate their timing and pricing of markdowns in order to maximize profit based on factors specific to consumers and their country. In this Q&A, Katrin Starke, head of business development at Orsay, details the company's journey to using inventory optimization machine learning tools from project conception, decision-making, to implementation of a tool called Luminate Clearance Price (LCP), sold by Arizona-based technology vendor JDA Software. Orsay has been running the software for nearly a year.