In our new series celebrating local businesses, we interview business owners to learn about their business and what makes them tick. Every business’s story is different – as are their goals and plans for the future. We’ll delve into the story of how the business came about – from it’s humble beginnings to today. Today we’re talking to Rashad Evans and Chris Poynter, the founders of EVANPOYNT. With more than 25 years’ experience in the retail and technology fields, COVID-19 motivated them to create a solution that would help retailers be bigger and better in the future. EVANPOYNT offers crucial services such as demand sensing, demand forecasting, fashion trend forecasting, and localised assortment. This is in addition to returns, new product ideas, and designs – all powered through technology.
Interview with Rashad Evans and Chris Poynter from EVANPOYNT
1. To start, tell us a bit about what your business does
We are both passionate about the Retail Sector. This industry interest and the profound impact of COVID-19 acted as the catalyst to start EVANPOYNT. The name is an abbreviation of our last names and represents our personal brand and commitment to our Clients’ success. Our knowledge of the retail sector is complemented by our extensive experience in disruptive, innovative and transformative technologies. This extends to areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud, cognitive, analytics and managed services.
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2. Tell us more about EVANPOYNT and why you started it
EVANPOYNT provides unique artificial intelligence (AI) driven business solutions to resolve critical challenges for retailers in the Australian and New Zealand market. We make AI and machine learning (ML) real for fashion and lifestyle retailers with solutions that advance complex decision making in merchandising and also supply chains. We do this by working with our Clients, focused on their business outcomes, together with our exclusive global Partners to deliver value such as reduced cost, increased revenue/profit, improved productivity, and a better-connected consumer. Our current market offerings include demand sensing, demand forecasting, fashion trend forecasting, localised assortment, new product ideas and designs, and how to stay abreast of the competition augmented by AI and ML.
3. What are some of your key milestones and successes?
Stylumia has come onboard as our first strategic and exclusive partner for the Australian & New Zealand markets. We announced this in January 2021.
4. What are your plans for the future?
Immediate plans for EVANPOYNT are growth through the adoption of the Stylumia platform across the Australian and also New Zealand markets. We also will be expanding our Partner ecosystem, complimentary offerings in supply chain, as well as a unique in-store solution partner offerings. Longer term, we want to be the provider of choice for unique artificial intelligence (AI) driven business solutions. We want to fundamentally resolve critical challenges for retailers in the Australian and also New Zealand markets.
5. How did you find out about Lawpath?
Looking for an NDA led us to the Lawpath website. It was quite easy to download a one-off free copy that we could immediately utilise. This led us to investigate further the rich content, self-help, and over 300 contracts we could exploit. Whilst we were experienced working with contracts, we questioned whether the effort involved in developing suitable contracts would be the best use of our time and also our attention. Further discussions confirmed our thinking that there was value in signing up to a package that offered us a bundled legal service that even as a start-up we found to be extremely attractive, and provided us with some peace of mind that we now had a source of proven contract templates and a reputable legal service on-tap.
