Fashion brands are increasingly using data to inform decisions throughout the design process, leveraging consumer insights and market trends, sales and inventory data, predictive analytics and more to personalize designs and optimize size, fit and fabrication.
The challenge for many designers and brands is navigating this wealth of data to prioritize essential information that will influence business decisions and drive revenue.
For Liverpool Los Angeles, which specializes in premium-value denim and sportswear at an affordable price, the information the brand receives from most of its retail partners is often limited, making it more difficult for the team to improve the fit of its designs with the help of customer purchasing behavior.
“From a department store, we learn whether an item sold or if it didn’t sell,” said Ron Perilman, president at Liverpool Los Angeles. “We don’t necessarily know why it didn’t sell. We take the sales from department stores and make comparisons to specialty stores to find the symmetry of best-sellers based on perceived customer value, fabric and fit.”
By leveraging sales data, customer feedback and other insights, Liverpool Los Angeles is building better products aligned with its core principles of style, consistent fit and sustainability. The brand has leaned on its retail partner, Stitch Fix, to provide real-time client feedback to improve future pieces’ product fit.
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For Liverpool Los Angeles, ‘design is full of information’
To improve the fit of its denim — the brand’s best-known category — Liverpool Los Angeles implemented a cross-fit strategy, in which the same size of jeans is fit on three different body types. By fitting denim on people who carry their weight differently, Liverpool Los Angeles has established a general fit for consistently-sized denim, trousers, jackets, tops and sweaters.
This technique bolsters the brand’s reputation among shoppers for consistent fit across styles and silhouettes. Perilman says Liverpool Los Angeles has a return rate of 19% compared to an industry average of 40 and 45% for online apparel.
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“We worked very, very hard on fit,” Perilman said. “Where we’re different is that we make a consistent fit — our fit does not shift.”
To bolster its expertise in fit, Liverpool Los Angeles also leverages customer feedback and sales data from its partnership with Stitch Fix. The customer feedback and sales data help the brand understand customers’ preferences regarding price, fit, value and color.
During weekly design meetings, the team dissects Stitch Fix’s client insights and identifies which products are gaining traction and the core customers for each item. This includes customer demographic information, such as age group, career and spending power.
Algorithms also fuel design meetings and complement general market trends, according to Perilman. Stitch Fix’s in-house AI algorithms interpret inputs such as customer feedback, style profiles, purchase histories and requests to uncover patterns and provide brand partners like Liverpool Los Angeles a holistic understanding of their clients’ style and real-time trends.
“Design is full of information,” Perilman said. “I always say there’s no such thing as a bad designer, but there is such a thing as giving a designer bad information and bad direction.”
What a basic trucker jacket taught Liverpool Los Angeles about customer preference
As Liverpool Los Angeles introduces items beyond jeans to sell on Stitch Fix, the brand increasingly relies on data to create new designs that resonate with shoppers. For instance, while the label’s basic trucker jacket was a top seller because of its fit and quality, data uncovered that many shoppers are unlikely to buy the same jacket multiple times.
Liverpool Los Angeles saw this as an opportunity and began introducing different colorways for the style. Colors are tested in short runs to see what is popular with customers, with a turnaround time of about 90 days. During this time, Liverpool Los Angeles evaluates customer comments and sell- and stick-rates to gauge performance.
“This is how we take a category, take the Stitch Fix algorithm and enhance it with a new design and new colors without even changing the body,” Perilman said. “Your algorithm will change dramatically if your fit or sizing shifts dramatically. All things being equal, you have to make sure nothing shifts from the product that gave you the highest success rate.”
Similarly, the team incorporated customer data to refine styles when Liverpool Los Angeles launched its Plus line on Stitch Fix in 2017. First, the brand applied its cross-fit strategy to ensure each garment fits three core silhouettes. When data showed demand was trending toward bootcut and wider-leg bottoms with plus-size shoppers, Liverpool Los Angeles adjusted its styles to capitalize on the predicted shift away from skinny styles.
These efforts have propelled Liverpool to become one of Stitch Fix’s top Plus denim and sportswear vendors, as well as best in class for size inclusion on the platform.
“It’s very encouraging to know that we’re going in the right direction,” Perilman said.
How intelligent design impacts Liverpool Los Angeles’ sustainable style
As the brand has cultivated its designs to meet customer expectations, Liverpool Los Angeles is among the top 30 words searched on Stitch Fix. By leveraging client feedback from Stitch Fix’s vendor portal and strategic discussions, the label has increased clients’ positive fit and style feedback by more than 6%, with nearly three-quarters of clients giving positive feedback on Plus styles.
Liverpool Los Angeles continues expanding to new categories, including shoes and jewelry, with more designs incorporating data and insights.
As data helps Liverpool Los Angeles determine what items to produce more of, the brand uses metrics, including utilization and success rates, to decide when to sunset products. By better tracking and managing which designs resonate with shoppers, Liverpool Los Angeles makes more responsible choices in its production and distribution — thereby supporting its sustainability goals.
“Liverpool Los Angeles works diligently to find sustainable ways to produce products,” Perilman said. “It is usually done by washing denim sustainably with the latest jean-logic equipment, using recycled water, recycled denim and reducing power usage. We also use recycled fabrications in our non-denim sportswear as much as we can.”
Sponsored by: Stitch Fix
