Greg Petro

Greg Petro

Greg Petro is founder and CEO of First Insight, a technology company transforming how leading retailers make product investment and pricing decisions.

Greg has a 25-year history in the retail industry with a career spanning merchandising, sales and management. But while at one of the world’s leading supply chain technology firms, he saw a need for retailers and brands to re-engage with consumers to determine which products would be top sellers well before costly investments are made to bring them to market. In 2007, Greg Petro founded First Insight Inc., a technology company that delivers what is now the world’s leading predictive analytics platform for consumer-testing new products. Through engaging consumers online and mining social data, the First Insight platform empowers retailers and brands to introduce the right products at the right price, and target them to the right customers. Today, he serves as its Chief Executive Officer and President. Greg is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as a frequent speaker at the graduate business schools of Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh. Greg also speaks and at a number of industry conferences, where he educates his listeners on how retailers can use technology to identify and deliver what their customers really want. Mr. Petro holds both MBA and Bachelor’s Degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.

The New Male Power Shoppers
April 16, 2019 at 2:04 pm

Despite conventional wisdom to the contrary, men are shopping both online and in-stores at higher rates than women. As discovered in First Insight’s latest consumer survey, The Rise of the New Male Power Shopper, men are bucking long-believed trends surrounding shopping habits. Men are more frequently shopping across all major channels both online and in-store,…

Understanding the Gender Effect of Technology Disruptors to Meet Consumer Expectations
May 7, 2018 at 11:53 am

Shopping preferences of men and women are diverging as each gender responds differently to disruptive technologies. This dynamic was highlighted in our new study, Mind the Gap: The Gender Effect on Shopping Habits and Technology Disruptors. In fact, according to the results, men are less likely to embrace disruptors like mobile shopping, Amazon.com, and discount…

Decoding Price Elasticity to Unlock Revenue and Minimize Risk
November 8, 2017 at 11:15 am

It’s no secret that there has been a shift in shopping behavior due to growth in millennial spending power, aging of baby boomers and the growth of online shopping. These changes are impacting pricing and demand, and are creating a disconnect for retailers and brands between what they're charging and how much consumers will actually…

The Discount Divide: Bringing Value to Millennials and Baby Boomers
April 13, 2017 at 9:18 am

Rampant discounting in department stores has conditioned a great majority of consumers to wait for the "SALE" sign before even entering. And this is impacting how they make purchase decisions in other aspects of their lives. In fact, roughly 90 percent of the 750 consumers First Insight surveyed last month acknowledged that these discounts are…

Markdown Mania: A Symptom of the Wrong Product at the Wrong Price
February 20, 2017 at 9:05 am

The retail industry is facing an epidemic. As retailers continue to use markdowns to entice shoppers and drive traffic into stores, consumers are becoming increasingly price sensitive, leading them to expect sales at every turn. A recent study by First Insight took a deeper dive into the expectations of consumers, finding that 70 percent need…

2016 Holiday Retail Expectations: A Surprisingly Sunny Outlook
September 23, 2016 at 9:21 am

It’s been a rough year for retail. The department store model has derailed into irrelevance, traditional brick-and-mortar stores have had to make massive investments in e-commerce, and customers’ needs have continued to change at breakneck speed. Despite some surprising (and some not so surprising) developments across the industry, the majority of retailers are looking forward…

Birchbox and Zappos: The New Type of Influencer Marketing
April 20, 2016 at 9:44 am

Influencer marketing isn't new; using celebrities to sell products is an age-old practice. However, a new type of influencer marketing — using regular customers as brand spokespeople — is on the rise. Highlighted in a National Retail Federation (NRF) article, “Customers Are the New Celebrities,” this trend of curating a group of select social media…

How to Jump on 3 Current Trends Impacting Retail Success
March 4, 2016 at 8:47 am

For a while now, retailers have been betting big on bits and bytes as they invest in retail technology. Overall, retailer IT spend was estimated at $60 billion in 2013. Although e-commerce platform spending gets much of the press, it’s only a small portion, $1.2 billion, of the overall retail tech budget. So where's the…

4 Things Retailers Should Know for 2016
February 22, 2016 at 9:37 am

One thing retailers can count on in January is innovation. Each year, retailers across the globe gather for Retail’s BIG Show hosted by the National Retail Federation (NRF). This year’s event covered the usual topics, such as payment technologies and improving the customer experience, but also demonstrated that there’s a big shift affecting the retail…