Retailer Strategies to Attract Christmas Shoppers with AI Fashion
Wiki Article
The Christmas season is a time when we as an online fashion retailer face significant competition for online shoppers. The introduction of AI Fashion Technology has enabled us to increase year-over-year Christmas Sales by 340% by providing our customers with a personal shopping experience that is interactive, lower-risk, and above all else accurate. Our transformation journey began with thoroughly understanding the fundamental challenges within online retailing.
Our internal statistics indicated a startling statistic. We found that 82% of potential customers leave our site without making a purchase due to the uncertainty regarding whether the products will work for them or not. They wonder about the color that will work with their skin tone, how each outfit will fit on their body type, etc. When using our professional high-end images taken with models, we created a gap between our customers' reality and what they were expecting. There was no way for them to picture themselves in these clothing items because they have a different body shape and skin tone than the model in the picture.
Our solution was to make VISBOOM, an artificial intelligence-powered image editing website with an ability to swap models, directly accessible through our product pages. Consumers now have the opportunity to view our products worn by various types of models (with differing features), as well as consumers of all different body shapes, skin tones and heights, without the expense of having to hire numerous models for each of our products. In addition to increasing product page engagement by 215%, the amount of time spent on our website has also significantly increased from 1.5 minutes to 6.3 minutes, and the percentage of visitors who have converted has risen from 2.1 per cent to 7.8 per cent.
Perhaps the most significant change we've experienced has been how we managed personalization in the past. To achieve a diverse range of models, we were reliant on hiring at least ten or more models of differing characteristics and repeating our photoshoots for every new product; this often cost us up to 40 percent of our marketing budgets for photography alone. However, thanks to the use of Visboom's ability to swap models, we were able to perform our photoshoots with only one or two professional models, thus saving 78 percent of our photography costs, while dramatically increasing our model representation.
We created a very easy and strong technical solution that allowed customers to quickly switch between models for each product by clicking a new “See Other Models” button on each product page. The button gives customers the ability to instantly change through eight to ten different model views. This feature was especially valuable for the plus-size and petite segments of the market, which have been historically under-represented in the fashion retail space.
Returns are the most dreaded part of retail because every return costs the retailer money in the form of lost sales, increased logistics costs (a return costs a retailer twice as much to handle), and potential for destroying the product itself while in transit back to the retailer. In our analysis of return patterns for the Christmas outfit category last year, we found that return rates for this group of products reached 38%, with 67% of returns based on items being returned due to the fact that they did not look the way the customer thought they would based on the images. The model comparison feature allowed customers to examine products from multiple angles and on multiple body types prior to making a purchase decision. Because of this, our customer return rate decreased from 38% to 14%, and savings from a reduced return rate alone covered the cost of developing the AI technology within the first three months.
The results of using AI to view the look of various clothing items on different model types, such as petite and tall, inspired customers to create their own outfits by adding accessories, including shoes, belts, jewelry, etc. By providing a way for customers to create custom looks and visually compare them side by side, they felt confident mixing and matching different looks to create one unique outfit that represented their personal style, which resulted in a larger average order size of $80 versus $30 and a repeat purchase rate of 89%.
Also, by using AI technology to provide suggestions for accessories to be worn with blazers and tailored pants, we made it easy for customers to find items that complemented each other. The Model Swap feature provided a sales tool as well as a content marketing tool, and we realized this potential when we created the "Find Your Style Twin" campaign. Customers could identify their body shape and then receive recommendations on outfits, which led to an increase in user-generated content resulting in a growth of social media mentions of 412%, and without any advertising, a large uptick in organic reach (i.e., new customers visiting our site and ordering products), since customers were excited to share the unique outfits they created using the Model Swap feature with others on social media.
By analyzing data for each product, AI helped us understand which models were swapped most frequently, thus giving us a greater understanding of our customers’ preferences. For instance, if a product was swapped on a lot of petite models, we were able to determine that we needed to have a greater quantity of XS or S sizes available. Inventory planning became more precise through the information AI provided, with overstock versus stockout levels improving by 45% and 62%, respectively on popular sizes, while inventory turnover rates saw an increase of 38%.
When we calculated our ROI, it was extremely positive for AI as we invested $10,000/year for Visboom's AI technology, and the $59,000/year returns were attributed to additional sales, less product returns, and improved operational efficiencies. The ROI for AI to the retailer in Year 1 was 493%. Retailers now have the opportunity to leverage AI fashion technology, like Visboom’s model swap functionality, to better compete for consumers’ business during the Christmas season because of consumer expectations for personalized, representative, and confidence-inspiring experiences prior to purchasing.
With AI technology and the advanced inventory management technology we’ve developed using VISBOOM, we’ve gone beyond simply increasing sales to revolutionizing the shopping experience to be more inclusive, efficient, and customer-centric. This revolution will create a sustainable competitive advantage for the retailer in this digital age, where technology serves as the foundation of a superior customer experience.