Symphony EYC, a global leader in delivering ROI for retailers and manufacturers using customer insights to drive execution, has announced the acquisition of Fifth Dimension. Headquartered in Milton Keynes, UK, and with an office in Jacksonville, Florida, Fifth Dimension helps retailers and CPG manufacturers optimize space and assortment planning decisions through the use of advanced store planning, 3D store and product visualization solutions.

Retailers are continuously challenged to provide customers with a compelling in-store experience that retains their loyalty and that also drives financial performance. Using Fifth Dimension’s optimization solutions and virtual environments, retailers can simulate and evaluate assortment and space alternatives based on shopping behavior, market trends and product performance. This enables them to replace their traditional physical, resource and cost constrained approach associated with store space planning and reduce the time from concept to in-store execution.

According to Gartner, “3D visualization will provide significant savings over the traditional methods of testing new layouts and merchandising ideas. It also creates innovation opportunities for both retailers and manufacturers by offering economical alternatives to creating physical virtual store labs.” Gartner, Inc., Hype Cycle for Retail Technologies, 2015, John Davison, Miriam Burt, Robert Hetu, Kelsie Marian, July 17, 2015.

The combination of the Fifth Dimension solutions and the Symphony EYC Merchandising and Category Management product suite for integrated assortment, store and shelf planning and optimization will provide retailers and CPG manufacturers with the unique ability to model the impact of their decisions on the assortment, resizing of category space, and overall in-store shopping experience.

“Changes in shopping habits are creating a strong demand for differentiation in the way stores are configured, across multiple locations and formats,” said Graeme Cooksley, President and Managing Director, Symphony EYC GOLD Solutions. “By eliminating the need for physical retail space when evaluating the viability of category concepts and in-store innovations, Fifth Dimension is able to remove cost and time from the retailer’s space planning process and enable them to accelerate delivery of the best possible shopper experience. The combined strength of Fifth Dimension and Symphony EYC’s Merchandising, Category Management and Supply Chain solutions will deliver the only offering in the market that truly focuses on elevating category management to be a strategic differentiator within our customers’ organizations.”

Mike Letchford, CEO, Fifth Dimension, added: “We’re very excited about today’s announcement with the great synergy that exists between the proven merchandising and supply chain capabilities of the EYC and GOLD retail platform and our own virtual macro and micro space planning and optimization solutions. Combining these capabilities creates an unrivaled offering that enables retailers and manufacturers to accelerate their concept to in-store execution process and better meet evolving shopper demands.”

Additional Resources
– Symphony EYC Welcomes Fifth Dimension
– Discover Fifth Dimension solutions