What First Insight does

First Insight is a cloud-based predictive analytics platform founded in 2007 and headquartered in Wexford, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh area), serving retailers, brands, and manufacturers with AI-driven consumer insights for product, pricing, and merchandising decisions. The company's InsightSUITE platform collects direct consumer feedback on pre-production products and applies proprietary predictive models, a generative AI context layer, and a conversational AI copilot named Ellis (built on what it claims is the only predictive Retail LLM in retail, trained on 18 years of consumer and product truth data) to generate Value Scores, price elasticity curves, demand forecasts, and assortment recommendations. Capabilities are organized into five AI Agent solution areas spanning Strategy & Planning, Design/Merchandising & Sourcing, Pricing, Supply Chain Planning, and Marketing & Selling, with a separate sub-brand for small and digitally native businesses.

The company operates a SaaS subscription model distributed exclusively through direct enterprise sales, targeting major retailers and brands with consultative demo-and-consultation engagement. Its customer base spans apparel, footwear, discount, department store, home goods, CPG, grocery, and manufacturing, with named customers including Marks & Spencer, Kohl's, Family Dollar, Coppel, Boden, Hotter Shoes, francesca's, Intradeco, and Beacon Design by ChemArt. In January 2024 First Insight acquired SnapRetail to add digital marketing capabilities, and in 2025-2026 it expanded internationally (Coppel in Mexico) and launched the Ellis AI platform at NRF 2026.

First Insight is privately held with no public ticker, has raised approximately $23.6M in disclosed equity across five rounds from 2007-2015 (most recently a $14M round led by Updata Partners with Escalate Capital), and operates with 51-100 employees. No board composition, institutional investor list, or recent funding events are disclosed in the available data, and revenue is not publicly reported.

Name

First Insight

Legal name

First Insight, Inc.

Website

https://firstinsight.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

First Insight is a cloud-based predictive analytics platform, founded in 2007 and based in Wexford, PA, that uses AI and an 18-year proprietary retail dataset to help retailers, brands, and manufacturers predict product success, optimize pricing, and improve assortment decisions through its InsightSUITE platform and Ellis AI Copilot.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Retail Predictive Analytics Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

End-to-End Enterprise AI Platforms (MLOps & Model Lifecycle Management) (HDAEANAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Recommendation & Discovery Engines (content/product) (BPAMAAAG), E-commerce & Retail Recommendation Engines (HDAAAGAA)

Keywords

• Retail predictive analytics
• AI merchandising software
• Price optimization software
• Consumer insights platform
• Assortment planning tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Wexford

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. SaaS Platform Subscription: Subscription-based access to the InsightSUITE platform providing predictive analytics, voice-of-customer solutions, and AI-powered insights for retail decision-making. The platform is offered as a cloud-based solution with tiered access levels.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

First Insight operates a cloud-based AI-powered predictive analytics platform (InsightSUITE) that helps retailers and brands decide which products to make, how to price them, and where to win. It combines voice-of-customer data, predictive demand and pricing models, and a proprietary Retail LLM-backed conversational AI copilot (Ellis) to support assortment, pricing, design, merchandising, supply chain, and marketing decisions. The platform is delivered as SaaS to enterprise retailers and brands globally.

Product overview

First Insight is an AI-powered retail decision platform with a platform-plus-modules architecture. The core InsightSUITE Platform is enhanced by Ellis, an AI copilot with a proprietary Retail LLM that operates on three layers: predictive algorithms, generative AI context, and conversational interface. The platform organizes capabilities into five AI Agent solution areas: Strategy & Planning (Consumer & Trend Insight, Forecasting, Strategic Insights), Design/Merchandising & Sourcing (Concept Research, Product Design Insights, Assortment Building, Assortment Rationalization), Pricing (Price Optimization, Margin Optimization), Supply Chain Planning (Plan & Inventory Optimization, Allocation Optimization, In-Season Optimization), and Marketing & Selling (Brand & Wholesale Sales, Market Research, Creative & Messaging, Campaigns & Targeting). The platform also includes Value Score for predicting product success. In January 2024, First Insight acquired SnapRetail, a digital marketing platform, to expand its retail marketing capabilities. The company also offers InsightSuite for Small Business for emerging brands.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Ellis: AI copilot and conversational interface for retail that provides instant, predictive answers on what to make, how to price, and where to win, backed by 18 years of retail data and the company's predictive Retail LLM.

Products and services

• InsightSUITE Platform The core AI-powered retail decision platform that integrates predictive analytics, voice-of-customer data, and AI agents to help retailers and brands make data-driven decisions on products, pricing, and marketing. Sold as a cloud-based SaaS subscription to enterprise retailers and brands.
• Ellis AI Copilot Conversational AI copilot and sub-brand providing instant, predictive answers on what to make, how to price, and where to win. Built on three layers: predictive algorithms, a generative AI context layer, and a conversational interface powered by a proprietary Retail LLM trained on 18 years of retail data.
• SnapRetail Digital marketing platform acquired by First Insight to enhance retail marketing capabilities, expanding service offerings in retail marketing and integrating voice-of-the-customer solutions.
• InsightSuite for Small Business Specialized tools for small and emerging businesses providing the fastest and most cost-effective way to increase sales, profits, and sell-in for growing businesses and digitally native brands.

Quantifiable outcome

• 40% reduction in development cycles
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• CoppelcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 June 2026Mexico's largest department store chain is expanding its predictive AI merchandising pilot program with First Insight from women's private label apparel to include men's and women's private label footwear, as part of a $4.6 billion transformation strategy. The platform collects direct consumer feedback on products before production to predict purchase intent, optimal pricing, and demand curves.
• Beacon Design by ChemArtminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 December 2025Beacon Design by ChemArt launched its first Christmas ornament collection with insights derived from AI-driven consumer feedback from First Insight, focusing on customer preferences, sentiment, and design updates for 2026.
• Family DollarcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 August 2024First Insight partnered with Family Dollar, a US discount retailer, to enhance its merchandise strategy through predictive analytics and actionable data. The collaboration aims to align Family Dollar's product offerings with evolving consumer expectations, improve product demand forecasting, reduce markdowns and stock shortages, and increase customer satisfaction and sales.
• SnapRetailcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 January 2024First Insight acquired SnapRetail, a digital marketing platform based in Pittsburgh, to expand its retail marketing capabilities. The acquisition is part of a broader strategy to strengthen First Insight's retail services platform, which includes consumer data insights and predictive analytics. SnapRetail's digital marketing capabilities were integrated to enhance voice of the customer solutions.
• BodencoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBoden partnered with First Insight to strengthen product, pricing, and merchandising decisions using AI-powered insights. The expanded partnership helps Boden move faster, bet bigger on winners, and stay true to what makes the brand special.
• Marks & SpencercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMarks & Spencer uses First Insight's AI-driven intelligence to get closer to customers and offer a more compelling fashion-led experience. The partnership has demonstrated 12% increase in sell-through for products tested with First Insight vs untested products.
• Wharton Baker Retailing CenterminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerFirst Insight partners with the Baker Retailing Center at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania for consumer research studies on sustainability, Gen Z behavior, and retail trends.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• StyleSage: StyleSage delivers AI-powered competitive assortment, pricing, and trend analytics for fashion retailers and brands. It is a direct comparitor to First Insight's predictive merchandising capabilities, especially for apparel and footwear accounts.
• Revionics: Revionics provides AI-driven price optimization and markdown solutions for retailers, overlapping with First Insight's Pricing Solutions and Price Elasticity Curves capabilities. Both target similar enterprise retail buyers and are evaluated as alternatives for assortment and pricing decisions.
• Bloomreach: Bloomreach offers an e-commerce personalization and product discovery platform that uses AI to surface relevant products and content to shoppers. It directly overlaps with First Insight's product recommendation and merchandising intelligence capabilities, particularly in apparel and retail verticals.
• Edited: Edited provides retail market intelligence and competitive analytics for apparel and fashion merchants, including pricing, assortment, and trend insights. It competes with First Insight's Consumer & Trend Insight and Design/Merchandising solutions for the same buyer personas.

Emerging players

• Dynamic Yield (Mastercard): Dynamic Yield offers personalization and product recommendation engines used by retail and e-commerce brands. It is an adjacent AI personalization vendor comparable to First Insight's recommendation capabilities for marketing and merchandising.
• Algolia: Algolia provides AI-powered search and discovery APIs used by retailers and brands to personalize product discovery. It overlaps with First Insight's recommendation and merchandising intelligence layer, particularly in digital commerce use cases.
• Precima (Blue Yonder): Precima, part of Blue Yonder, provides AI-driven retail analytics including assortment, pricing, and supplier collaboration intelligence. It is a direct competitor to First Insight's predictive retail platform with a focus on category management and demand forecasting.

Broad incumbents

• NielsenIQ (NIQ): NielsenIQ is a large-scale retail data and consumer insights provider offering market intelligence, demand forecasting, and assortment analytics. It is a broad incumbent alternative for enterprise retailers evaluating First Insight's predictive platform, especially for CPG and grocery verticals.
• SAP Customer Experience (Commerce Cloud): SAP offers enterprise retail and merchandising solutions including planning, pricing, and assortment capabilities. As a broad platform incumbent, it competes with First Insight when retailers evaluate bundled suites versus best-of-breed AI analytics.
• Oracle Retail: Oracle Retail offers a broad suite of merchandising, planning, and supply chain solutions to enterprise retailers. While not focused exclusively on AI-driven predictive analytics, it competes with First Insight in assortment planning, pricing, and inventory optimization for large global retailers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@FirstInsight1
• Facebookfacebook.com/first-insight-161449930551078
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/212863
• Instagraminstagram.com/firstinsightinc
• Xx.com/FirstInsight

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about First Insight