Engage3, a Davis-based developer of analytics software for retail companies, has been engaged by Ashley Furniture Industries LLC, the Wisconsin-based company that has 700 of its own Ashley HomeStore locations and sells furniture through 20,000 storefronts in 155 countries.
Ashley will use Engage3’s “Price Image Management Suite” to track its price position and assortment with precision, Engage3 CEO Edris Bemanian told the Business Journal.
He said Engage3's platform will provide Ashley with real-time and actionable insight to optimize both price and assortment on a dynamic basis via a combination of artificial intelligence, competitive data and analytics.
Founded in 1945, Ashley is the largest manufacturer of home furnishings in the world, according to its website.
Engage3's platform will let Ashley see what competitors are doing with promotions and pricing, and help it select items to use in its own promotions to get the greatest effect.
Ashley is signing up with Engage3 as many retailers are facing inflation and supply chain problems.
“We have a massive and differentiated assortment that requires a combination of precision and scale to support, and Engage3 stood out as having the most complete omnichannel pricing solution in the market,” said Justin Woods, vice president of omnichannel pricing strategy with Ashley, in a news release.
Engage3 has doubled the number of customers using its platform this year, Bemanian said, adding that the company is on track to have 75 customers by the end of the year. That includes five of the 10 largest global retailers. Engage3 currently has 130 employees, he said, adding that the company could double that number in the next two years.
Unlike, say, a grocery store, which may see its customers on a weekly basis, furniture and furnishings purchases could be years apart. But customers in both instances are price sensitive, Bemanian said. Engage3 works with information to determine price elasticity on products — that is, where lowering or raising a price will affect the volume sold. It also helps the stores use promotions that actually have an effect on customer perception that they are getting a good value.
“This is not just statistical modeling. It’s a harder math problem. We use quantum physics modeling,” Bemanian said.
Engage3 was ranked No. 13 on the Sacramento Business Journal’s Fastest Growing Companies list in August, with $11.1 million in revenue in 2020, up 100% over three years.
Founded in 2008, the company has raised about $24 million in venture capital funding, and separately also raised equity capital from Wells Fargo Strategic Capital two years ago.
