“Fashion-business fluent” is a sought after skill these days — and Spain-based retail merchandising solution firm Nextail speaks the language with a cadence that gets results.
Nextail’s approach is to lean into the human element of retail by culling and collating algorithmic data through its industry-specific technologies. And for Nextail, that means gleaning data that allows retailers’ natural skills to “take a leading role.”
Here, Joaquín Villalba, founder and chief executive officer at Nextail, talks to WWD about the story behind the brand, the power of its data and the state of the industry.
WWD: Tell us about Nextail. What brought the brand into being? 
Joaquín Villalba: Our industry is incredibly rich. It enjoys a great mix of art and science. However, great advances on either side haven’t always been aligned. Until now, there has been a great lack of applied data analytics in driving business decisions. Thus, fashion has inherited a significant number of operational inefficiencies, especially related to buying and merchandising. These limitations make it more and more challenging to meet customer expectations, reach business goals and, worst yet, they create unnecessary waste.
Sometimes there’s just a better way of doing things. As an engineer by training, my eye is trained to spot

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