Today is the day! After four years of hard work within the confines of Crunch Analytics, we're launching Markmi. We aim to make Markmi the AI-driven price markdown assistant every fashion retail team is keen to work with.
Why are we so excited? Because Markmi is more than just a tool—it's a solution born from the real, everyday challenges of fashion retailers. Challenges we witnessed during the years I sat in meeting rooms with fashion retail executives. With the constant pressure on margins and rapidly changing consumer habits, fashion teams are often stretched thin, especially when deciding on price markdowns. Too often, this process is still bogged down by time-consuming spreadsheets and guesswork, leading to suboptimal results.
So, how did we get here? My journey into the fashion world isn't random. My family has deep roots in the fashion industry. My grandfather ran a successful ready-to-wear fashion company during the golden years of Belgian manufacturing. While the business landscape has evolved, my connection to fashion remained strong. Even after pursuing a career in engineering and computer science, the fashion industry was never far from my mind.
That's why, during my time building Crunch Analytics, a question we kept returning to was: How can we use data and AI to make life easier for fashion retailers? How can we help them find increased profitability in a fundamentally changing world?
The idea for Markmi started to take shape during the pandemic. Retailers were facing unprecedented challenges—stockpiles growing, margins shrinking—and it became clear that there was a more innovative way to handle markdowns. This is where AI comes in. Markmi is here to help retailers make faster, more accurate pricing decisions. It's not just about reducing stock—it's about doing it in a way that protects margins and helps businesses stay competitive. By replacing outdated, error-prone processes, Markmi allows teams to focus on what really matters: making confident, data-driven decisions that boost their bottom line.
But don't just take my word for it. We've been fortunate to work with some incredible partners already— be it Belgian favorites like Torfs, Zeb, and E5 or European giants like G-Star and C&A. These companies are already seeing real results: a 5-10% increase in sales and a 2-5% improvement in margins during markdown periods, thanks to Markmi.
And this is only the beginning. We are ready for international expansion. I - personally - am so hard looking forward to knocking on more boardroom doors and spreading the word. Whether it's helping C&A manage markdowns across Europe or guiding G-Star's online discount strategies in the US, Markmi demonstrates that the potential for AI in fashion retail is enormous. We also see growing interest from markets like the Middle East and South Africa.
So what's next? Markmi isn't meant to be just a markdown tool—it's part of a larger conversation about the future of pricing in fashion. Retailers are starting to see AI's power in optimizing current sales and their overall pricing strategies. And I believe that AI will become indispensable in helping fashion brands thrive in this new, demanding retail landscape.
I'm incredibly proud of our team. Of what we've built with Markmi and how far we have come in some daunting conditions, I can't wait to see where this journey takes us.
Feel free to reach out if you want to learn more about how Markmi can help your retail teams. Let's chat about how AI can transform your pricing strategies.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned—this is just the start of something extraordinary!
Laurent
Tip of the hat to those who supported us through this journey:
Jan Driegelinck - BENT
Luc De Baets - Torfs
Stijn De Knop - Torfs
Peter De Sutter - E5
Johan Koetje - OFM
Rose Smits - (S&S)
Arn Knol - (G-Star)
Markus Krenn - C&A
Koen Rombaut - BNPPF
