Ashley Stewart

Ashley Stewart, a global fashion and lifestyle brand, has propelled itself to be on the vanguard of social commerce and purpose-driven business. Since its founding in 1991 in Brooklyn, New York, Ashley Stewart has always stood for uncompromising style, fashion, confidence & empowerment for the woman who flaunts her curves.

Challenge

Ashley Stewart had limited visibility into the number of customers at any given time inside of their bricks-and-mortar locations.

Our approach

Michael Appel, a member on the board of directors at Ashley Stewart, had successfully and productively leveraged MRI Software technology when he was CEO at rue21, another MRI partner. Michael suggested that Ashley Stewart consider MRI Software.

After discussions with the Ashley Stewart team, MRI Software installed its technology at its Newark location for a proof of concept. Ashley Stewart appreciated that MRI’s own employees managed and implemented the installation. Based on that execution of that proof of concept – ease and efficiency of the installation, team engagement and the actual analytics themselves – the retailer selected MRI Software as its exclusive store analytics partner.

As of Q3 2021, MRI Software has installed its people counting technology in more than 90% of Ashley Stewart’s bricks-and-mortar stores.

MRI also captures sales data for the retailer, and leverages that information to provide conversion rates.

Our findings

MRI Software delivers a full customer journey –- from entrance to the store to the actual sale — which provides lines of actionable insights to Ashley Stewart, including conversion rate, revenue/sales transaction trends, and average order size, all of which can be viewed by time of day, week, etc. MRI’s data enables the retailer to track trends and adjust accordingly.

We are looking at the data daily to identify opportunities that will help drive business improvement.  We’ve reviewed the impact of scheduling by segment as well as where we have opportunity to shift tasking. We look at the data directionally for insight that may help project trends.

Susan Reiman, Vice President, Field and Operations

As they approached Q4 2021, Ashley Stewart was monitoring the data as they considered a review of their store hours. They began staying open at most locations until 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and will continue to evaluate store trends to see where they have more opportunity to adjust operating hours.