New Software System Determines What Retail Customers Want to Buy

Cambridge, MA, September 1, 2015—Two Massachusetts Institute of Technology professors Vivek Farias and Devavrat Shah have developed a software system called Celect that analyzes a store’s sales and inventory data to determine which products customers want to buy.

Using customer choice modeling, the software enables retail buyers, merchandisers, planners and inventory analysts to increase sales, margins, and reduce markdowns by placing the right product, in the right place, at the right time to increase same-store sales and increase online conversion.

The company claims that optimized assortments produced using the Celect Choice Engine yield 7% revenue increases for the same spend.