Tariff-Ready Retail in a Week: First Insight Rolls Out Strategic AI Approach to Optimize Price, Margin and Inventory

AI-Powered Retail Platform Leverages Consumer Feedback to Predict Demand, Determine Pricing Thresholds, and Model Potential Scenarios so Retailers Aren’t at the Whim of a Shifting Market

First Insight, the company that leverages agentic AI to transform consumer feedback into profitable retail growth strategies, has rolled out a new approach to predicting pricing and demand to protect retailers’ margins amid tariff uncertainty. The onset of tariffs has made many retailers acutely aware that they’re not prepared for unexpected supply chain volatility and the shifting consumer behaviors that result. First Insight, which already works with major retailers like Gap, Under Armour and Marks & Spencer, to optimize their pricing, merchandising and/or inventory, has turned its attention to making sure retailers can take control of their pricing and inventory strategies using real-time customer insights and predictive scenario modeling.

In the last few months alone, tariffs have shifted in percentages, impacted countries and affected categories and materials–creating confusion and financial pressure across the retail industry. These unpredictable changes lead to pricing blind spots that erode margins and force retailers into reactive, often damaging decisions. Retailers need to be able to simulate how tariff-driven costs impact their margins and sales, and understand how consumers perceive product value at different price points.

First Insight’s approach to tariff readiness ensures that retailers–in the U.S. and across Europe–are optimizing the factors they can control, such as consumer-facing pricing, assortment planning, how much inventory they should stock–and which products they shouldn’t stock at all. And it’s equipping them to do it within a week. By tapping into its global network of 360+ million users, First Insight’s platform engages actual consumers to take real-time temperature checks on what they value, what they’ll buy and what they won’t–and delivers the resulting actions within 24 - 48 hours, so retailers can:

• Determine the optimal price for every single SKU. As the cost of production and materials increases, most retailers will have to adjust their prices to operate profitably. But doing so isn’t simply a matter of tacking on the additional cost they’re accruing. Retailers need to know which SKUs can actually absorb price increases. They also must take into account the inevitable need to markdown items later without a major hit to margins. All of this requires determining which products are the most sensitive and resilient to change. Rather than relying on past sales history to predict the future, First Insight uses a combination of AI and real-time consumer feedback to create forward-looking demand curves that map out pricing elasticity–or how demand for every single SKU they carry changes depending on its price and sentiment.

• Take control of margins with predictive scenarios. Retailers are currently in a grace period, where their existing inventory is priced based on pre-tariff costs. This buys them time to simulate “what-if” scenarios that reveal how different hypothetical tariff-driven cost increases could impact shoppers’ willingness to purchase upcoming SKUs at various price points, and which products’ margins will suffer most as costs fluctuate. By determining what consumers are willing to pay for every product, retailers then have the information they need to predict their most profitable SKUs, prioritize high-velocity items, and preserve margins by avoiding price increases on products that can’t tolerate them. As tariff-driven price increases persist, retailers can additionally optimize in-season products to reflect active consumer sentiment.

• Remove unpredictability from inventory planning. Retailers never want to be left with large amounts of excess inventory, but with increasing costs, now it’s more expensive and unstrategic than ever to invest in the wrong product mixes. To account for this, First Insight assigns each item a unique Value Score™ based on a range of factors, including pricing, likeability and consumers’ likelihood of purchase. Using these scores, retailers gain advanced insight into the proper SKU rationalization–or, the 80% of planned products that will create the majority of value and the 20% they should cut. First Insight’s AI can additionally simulate volume and sell-through scenarios to pinpoint the optimal inventory mix.

This approach and philosophy is detailed in full in First Insight’s “Tariff-Proof Playbook: AI Pricing Strategies for Protecting Margins.”

“Tariffs are an opportunity to either lead with a strategy or react out of fear,” said Greg Petro, CEO of First Insight. “Moves like early order pulls, blanket price hikes, steep promotions, or arbitrary cuts may feel safe–but they aren’t a strategy. Now is the time to plan. We are guiding leading retailers and manufacturers around the globe to use real-time AI market data to get through the tough calls now, so they’re prepared to navigate unpredictable, but inevitable future scenarios.”

First Insight helps retailers eliminate risk by integrating consumer feedback into every decision they make, replacing retailers’ guesswork with insight-driven decisions. The company’s proprietary AI algorithm creates strategies for retailers informed directly by consumers across 5 strategic areas: Strategy & Planning; Design, Merchandising & Sourcing; Pricing; Supply Chain Planning; and Marketing and Selling. Since its founding in 2007, First Insight has helped 600+ retailers and brands successfully navigate economic turbulence, demand shocks, and supply chain disruptions, including the 2008 Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic.

About First Insight

First Insight is a global retail platform that uses its native AI to turn real-time customer feedback into profitable strategies for more than 600+ brands and retailers. Companies like Gap, Under Armour, Woolworths and Family Dollar rely on First Insight to understand what consumers will buy, what they won’t, how much they’re willing to pay, and how these and other factors directly influence planning, inventory and margins. First Insight further transforms customer feedback into a Value Score™, assigned to every single product it gains insight on. These scores accurately predict the viability of and demand for products so that retailers can confidently make design, pricing and inventory decisions that will deliver measurable financial impact. The company’s Voice of the Customer Platform is central to its offering and boasts a network of 360+ million consumers spanning 180 countries and 67 languages and currencies. First Insight was founded in 2007.

Learn more at: www.firstinsight.com

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