How Bestseller approaches technology across its brands: what is public
Bestseller has published its investments in automation and materials, but little on digital B2B tools or AI. Here is what is documented about a multi-brand wholesale group.
KEY TAKEAWAYS Summary by the editors
- Bestseller is a privately held Danish group founded in 1975 whose brands include ONLY, Vero Moda, VILA, Jack & Jones, Selected Homme, Name It and JJXX, and which sells through its own stores and independent retailers.
- Bestseller's own news pages describe a record investment in automation to take fashion logistics to the next level, and an automation award in 2023, which shows technology investment centred on operations.
- Bestseller's news pages describe a USD 20 million funding round in automated garment production, led by Bestseller, and SoftWear Automation describes its Sewbot technology as machine vision and robotics for on-demand apparel production.
- The Bestseller sources reviewed do not mention AI, a digital showroom or a B2B ordering platform, so public evidence for AI in Bestseller's wholesale business is absent.
- A group with many brands and thousands of wholesale customers faces a data challenge of consistency across brands, which is a prerequisite for any AI tool.
Bestseller has been public about automation, recycling and materials investments, and about brand-level consumer apps, but the sources reviewed do not describe AI or a group-wide digital B2B ordering platform. This case study therefore reports what is documented, the technology bets that are visible, and the questions a multi-brand wholesale group has to answer before AI can help.
It deliberately avoids repeating third-party claims about Bestseller's B2B or AI tools that cite no company source.
What is Bestseller and how does it sell?
Bestseller is a privately held, family-owned Danish group founded in 1975 in Brande, according to Wikipedia. Its labels include ONLY, its largest, Vero Moda, VILA, Jack & Jones, Selected Homme, Name It and JJXX. Brands are sold in the group's own stores and through independent retailers. The encyclopedia infobox lists around 15,000 wholesale customers, though the same page gives inconsistent store counts, so exact scale figures should be checked against the company's own reporting.
Many brands, many retailers and several customer types (own stores, franchise, independent wholesale) produce a data problem before any AI problem: product, order and sell-through data must be comparable across brands and partners.
Where has Bestseller publicly invested in technology?
The Tech and Innovation sections of Bestseller's news site list several items. They include a record investment in automation to take fashion logistics to the next level, an automation award in 2023, a JACK & JONES club app with rewards and an omnichannel experience, and a USD 20 million funding round for automated garment production, led by Bestseller. They also list investment in future materials and polyester recycling, including textile-to-textile recycling.
SoftWear Automation describes itself as a machine vision and robotics company whose patented Sewbots use cameras and sensors to adjust fabric in real time during sewing, making T-shirts on demand with lead times of a few days. Bestseller is not named in the body of that page, so the link between the two should be taken from Bestseller's own announcement.
| Area | Item listed | Relevance to wholesale and AI |
|---|---|---|
| Logistics | Record automation investment; 2023 automation award | Operations, not ordering |
| Production | Funding round in automated garment production | Supply side, long term |
| Consumer | JACK & JONES club app with rewards and omnichannel features | Direct-to-consumer data |
| Materials | Textile-to-textile recycling and recycled polyester programmes | Sustainability and sourcing |
| B2B ordering and AI | Not mentioned in sources reviewed | Not documented |
Does Bestseller use AI or digital B2B tools?
The sources reviewed do not say so. The company's news pages list technology items, but none described AI, a digital showroom or a B2B portal. Some vendor and blog pages claim otherwise for large brand groups in general, and a search for Bestseller and digital B2B returned mostly unrelated vendor marketing, which is not used here.
That absence is informative. It does not mean Bestseller has no digital ordering, since a company of its size almost certainly does, but it means any account of its tools must come from the company or from named reporting.
What would AI need in a multi-brand wholesale group?
- A common product master. Attributes, sizes and colours defined consistently across brands so that models compare like with like.
- Digital order capture. Buyer selections recorded in structured form, by brand, customer and delivery window.
- Sell-out feedback. Retail partner sales, where available, linked to the same product identifiers.
- Clear ownership. Brand teams and the group must agree who decides when a forecast or recommendation is overridden.
- Measurement. Forecast accuracy, order conversion and returns tracked before and after a tool is introduced.
Lessons for other groups. The visible pattern is investment in operations and materials: logistics automation, production technology and recycling. These reduce cost and risk in ways that do not depend on a model's predictions. For wholesale, that suggests starting with order data and fulfilment reliability, the parts of the process buyers experience directly, before layering predictive tools on top.
What is the difference between operational automation and AI?
The visible Bestseller items fall mostly under automation: robotic production, warehouse and logistics systems. Automation carries out a defined task repeatedly and predictably. AI, in the sense used for planning and personalisation, makes predictions or generates content from patterns in data. The two can be combined, but they have different risks and prerequisites.
Automated logistics depends on accurate product and order data, but the cost and benefit are easier to measure: throughput, error rates and handling cost. Predictive tools are harder to evaluate because the counterfactual, what would have been bought or sold without them, is unknown. This is one reason why companies often invest first in automation and in data quality.
What questions should a multi-brand wholesale group ask a technology partner?
- Can one product record serve every brand while still allowing brand-specific attributes?
- How are orders captured, changed and cancelled, and can planners see them in real time?
- How is retailer sell-out data matched to products, and who owns it?
- What is the process when an automated recommendation is wrong?
- How are results measured, and against what baseline?
Why is a multi-brand group harder to plan than a single brand?
Each brand in a group typically has its own customers, seasonal calendar, price points and buying teams. A central technology team must support these differences while keeping enough common structure for group reporting. Product data illustrates the tension: a basic tee in one brand and a tailored jacket in another need different attributes, yet buyers and planners at group level need comparable measures such as sell-through and margin.
Wholesale adds a further layer. Independent retailers order in different sizes and at different times, some through sales agents and some online. Capturing those orders in a consistent digital form is the first step toward any analysis. Without it, a forecasting model sees only part of demand.
These are general features of multi-brand wholesale and are not statements about Bestseller's internal systems, which the sources reviewed do not describe.
For readers evaluating suppliers or partners in this segment, a short due diligence list helps: ask for named reference customers with similar brand and retailer counts, ask what share of orders is already captured digitally, and ask how the system handles brand-specific rules such as minimum orders, delivery windows and credit limits.
Frequently asked questions
Does Bestseller use AI?
The Bestseller sources reviewed do not mention AI. They describe investments in automation, recycling and materials, and a consumer app for one brand, but not AI systems.
What brands does Bestseller own?
Its labels include ONLY, Vero Moda, VILA, Jack & Jones, Selected Homme, Name It and JJXX, according to Wikipedia. The group is privately held and family-owned.
What is Bestseller's link to SoftWear Automation?
Bestseller's news site describes a USD 20 million funding round in automated garment production led by Bestseller. SoftWear Automation describes itself as a machine vision and robotics company that makes apparel on demand.
Does Bestseller have a digital B2B platform?
None is described in the sources reviewed. A group selling to thousands of wholesale customers will have ordering processes, but their digital form is not documented here.
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