Academy Sports + Outdoors continues AI pricing optimization
A growing sporting goods and outdoor recreation retailer is extending its use of artificial intelligence to aid pricing and markdowns.
Academy Sports + Outdoors will continue leveraging pricing and markdown applications from Revionics LLC, an Aptos Company. For more than 10 years, Academy has utilized the Revionics platform to optimize pricing decisions.
Academy’s product assortment focuses on key categories of outdoor, apparel, footwear, and sports and recreation through both national brands and a portfolio of private-label brands. The company employs a localized merchandising strategy and tailors pricing strategies to meet the specific needs of every market where it operates with assistance from the Revionics AI pricing platform.
In addition, Academy optimizes pricing across products and categories with reporting on the impact and value generated by price changes and can refine markdown cadence and depth to help clear seasonal inventory profitably and keep on-shelf selections current.
The retailer also says it can more accurately forecast customer demand and price sensitivity to help ensure optimal pricing and positive price image, as well as scale pricing operations more efficiently to help manage its expanding store portfolio.
[READ MORE: Academy Sports + Outdoors opening new stores — here’s where]
“When I first joined Academy, we had approximately 70 stores, and our pricing team was manually analyzing individual stores and markets,” said Russell Kolb, VP of pricing, merchant systems and master data management at Academy. “But now, we have more than 300 stores, and we leverage technology to help identify the right price across all stores and our highly varied assortment. That’s where the Revionics tools really shine — we’re able to unlock pricing strategies that deliver consistent value to shoppers and achieve stronger results, while easily scaling to manage more stores and products.”
Academy also integrates the Invent Analytics AI-based supply chain solution with Revionics AI pricing. The Invent Analytics platform combines forecasting, replenishment and allocation functions, helping the retailer synergize roles to focus on desired outputs, instead of simple function execution.
Originally founded in 1938 as a family business in Texas, Academy Sports + Outdoors has grown to more than 300 stores across 21 states and is expanding.
