As artificial intelligence continues to evolve and strengthen, there are several entrepreneurs employing the cutting-edge technology for the greater good in Fashion. The most recent illustration is AI-algorithm Aistetic which enables fashion e-retailers to accurately measure, understand fit preferences, and suggest sizes to online shoppers. Founded by Duncan McKay, with over fifteen years experience in launching and commercialising new products for major consumer goods companies, the aim of creating Aistetic is to help fashion brands to become size-inclusive and also contribute to sustainable development by reducing returns, excess inventory, and, consequently, clothing waste.
Aistetic
“I have worked for L’Oreal, Unilever and PepsiCo coming up with new product ideas and consumer solutions. I built an £18m net revenue business in a year whilst at PepsiCo and my last role was Head of E-commerce for a European business unit. I got into this because I love innovating; I get a kick out of innovation, building and scaling businesses,” explains founder Duncan McKay in a company release. “I founded Aistetic with Phil Torr as I experienced the problem of poor fitting clothes personally and we both felt that we could solve this with a technology solution using Phil’s research and expertise in computer vision and deep learning. With the development of our patent-pending solution, we quickly realised that our purpose is bigger than that – we want to make next-gen 3D body modelling available to anyone with a mobile device.”
The vision behind the algorithm is deep-rooted in sustainability. Too many clothes ordered online do not fit and processing the return, re-stock and re-delivery takes a toll on retailers. There is an environmental cost as well with clothes going to landfills or additional logistics required to handle these returns. And, it’s a pain for shoppers to order multiple sizes and send back those that did not fit. The solution? Simple. Aistetic, available on Shopify App Store, launches in less than a minute with easy integration, and is a solution for retailers that is simple and convenient for the shoppers. By using data points such as body measurements, gender and age, Aistetic offer a predicted sizing, following which you can go ahead and shop, or, create a personalized measurement by placing your mobile phone down on the floor, stepping back, and turning 360 degrees slowly for ten seconds. In less than two minutes, an accurate size profile is generated and available on the body modelling and analytics dashboard.
‘The future of retail lies with AI,’ per a tweet from the official account of Aistetic. ‘Combining AI and E-commerce is no longer inaccessible to retailers and yet is a way to deliver a bespoke differentiated customer experience.’
Aistetic
It’s a win:win for fashion businesses and consumers. AI-powered Aistetic has the potential to revolutionize e-commerce by building an immersive e-commerce shopping experience. This enables a high level of measurement accuracy and sizing recommendation for a better fit in order to reduce returns and increase customer loyalty. Additionally, this also helps with inventory forecasting, allowing fashion businesses to predict size demand and adjust their production. And, it can help businesses create custom fits for individual customers, further improving their retail experience.
Jasmeen Dugal is Associate Editor at FashionABC, contributing her insights on fashion, technology, and sustainability. She brings with herself more than two decades of editorial experience, working for national newspapers and luxury magazines in India.
Jasmeen Dugal has worked with exchange4media as a senior writer contributing articles on the country’s advertising and marketing movements, and then with Condenast India as Net Editor where she helmed Vogue India’s official website in terms of design, layout and daily content. Besides this, she is also an entrepreneur running her own luxury portal, Explosivefashion, which highlights the latest in luxury fashion and hospitality.
