Metro Brands and Nextail team up in bid to revolutionise merchandise planning for Indian footwear

Metro Brands, an Indian footwear and accessory specialty retailer, has entered into a strategic partnership with Nextail, a merchandise planning platform for fashion.

The long-term agreement encompasses a number of AI driven solutions across buying and merchandising.

Metro Brands operates more than 800 stores across over 180 Indian cities, with plans to open approximately 200 by FY 2025.

It says that, through accurate demand forecasting and decision automation, the Nextail platform will ensure product availability across its rapidly expanding store footprint.

With hyper-local forecasting, every store will have the individual focus that is usually only possible in the earliest stages of a brand’s journey. Metro Brands lays claim to being one of the only retailers in India with this capability at scale.

Nissan Joseph, CEO at Metro Brands, says: “Since opening our first store in 1955, Metro Brands has been fully dedicated to providing unparalleled service to customers by way of fashionable and region specific footwear.”

“Our decision to partner with Nextail is based on their strong product vision and retail knowledge, but more importantly because of our shared ethos for leveraging cutting-edge solutions in favour of enhancing the customer experience.”

Juan G. Avedillo, Co-CEO at Nextail comments: “We are so proud to embark on this journey with Metro Brands, an iconic and respected name in the Indian retail landscape. Together, we aim to empower them to stay at the forefront of retail innovation in India and worldwide.”

2023 RTIH INNOVATION AWARDS

Nextail emerged victorious at the 2023 RTIH Innovation Awards, picking up the Best Retailer/Technology Supplier Relationship (Rest of World) gong for its work with Flying Tiger Copenhagen.

By partnering with Nextail, the retailer has boosted its core merchandising processes through hyper-local demand forecasting, global inventory optimisation and AI driven decision automation.

As a result, it has transformed its wholesale business into one that is fully integrated and omnichannel. 

What began as a roll-out in the UK and Ireland quickly expanded into a partnership encompassing the entire European owned and operated store network of more than 800 stores.

Our 2023 winners were revealed at a fantastic awards ceremony, which took place at the Barbican Centre in central London.

The event was held on Wednesday, 29th November, maintaining its popular evening format, with a drinks reception in the stunning Conservatory, followed by a Christmas themed three course meal, and awards ceremony in the Garden Room.

Check out the full winners list here.