Fashion invests in data-led role for ‘future proof’ operations

In 2020, fashion brands and retailers employed 40% more data-only roles, compared to the previous year, an analysis from AI-driven retail merchandising firm Nextail found.

As part of Nextails’ annual Retail Data-Forwardness Index (RDI), they assessed the hiring patterns of 22 fashion brands and retailers including Nike, H&M and Dry. Then collect the Retail Data-Forwardness (RD) score by dividing employees related to company data by last year’s end-of-year income. It also evaluates the proportion of employees related to the data compared to the total number of employees of each company.

The index reveals that North American sportswear businesses and large corporations invest the most in data-led roles. For the third year in a row Nike outperformed other companies indexed as the brand with the highest weight on employee data compared to the total number of employees. Meanwhile, Levis Strauss got a high RD score.

Luxury retailers also made notable progress this year with a 56.5% increase in their RD scores over the previous year.

Joaquin Villalba, CEO and co-founder of Nextail, told Drapers: More than ever fashion brands and retailers are investing in talent to help them leverage data to future-proof their operations. These professionals empower brands to better interpret data and work with advanced technology across the organization, to capture the full potential of retailer data and beyond, ultimately delivering a better customer experience.

“What we’re seeing is a fundamental shift in the skills needed to be a successful retailer. It makes sense to offer colleagues who are already part of the company culture, who understand its values, the opportunity to retrain and develop new data skills to meet the needs of the company.” modern retail needs.