Outfits you see, outfits you get with your smartphone
BY PAULA CLEMENTE, El Mundo
The image recognition system of Wide Eyes Technologies helps you find garments and complements in the fitting room in the online environment. It even dares to suggest how you would look in it. Some of the main department stores use it.
How many times have you wondered where that person at the supermarket got the sweater, pants, or shoes, they’re wearing? Even when you like the garment so much, you probably have been too ashamed to ask him/her about it. Well, the startup Wide Eyes Technologies had the same question in mind when it started its quest: make the most of artificial intelligence technologies like Deep Learning and Image Recognition a solution to such a problem.
It’s a tool that lets physical or virtual stores improve their customer’s experience and gives to those who are always right, what they are looking for; not to go along the streets taking pictures of the craziest “outfits” – even when this may represent a kind of escape-.
Luis Manent one of the founders, explains, “we are able to understand any outfit in a picture and look for similar pieces in a data-base”. He says “we work as technology suppliers, but our customers decide how to use it”. Some customers use it in a fitting room, others on the internet, and some more an the App. There are even people who use it for internal processes. But the real function of this tool is “it is capable of finding a whole look, similar products, and giving you some advice (related to the garment at issue) from just an image”.
As its experience in one of the biggest Spanish fashion chain shows, the conditions of use are several. In the physical store a direct answer can be given to “I love this shirt, but I don’t know how to match it with the rest of my clothes. In this case the system answers automatically: Do you know how it would look nice on you? Using this, this, and this. It tells you in the fitting room”, explains the co-founder of Wide Eyes Technologies. “It’s a moment when the purchase trigger is very high”.
In e-commerce it always happens the same way, even though the tool solves the fails on text search. “80% of searches made in an e-commerce don’t show the desired results”, Manent explains. With Image Recognition, “what we do is grow the conversion rate and increase engagement and the average amount purchased per user”.
This tool can work with a self taken image of any street style or a picture found in a corner somewhere on internet. “This technology is also used for those who are interested in understand what is happening in the fashion world, to analyze trends”, says Manent. “In this way, it’s possible to obtain, very useful information for the logistics and stocks matter too”.
At the same time, those who use it internally apply it to clean out the data-base, search for duplicated products, show clothing characteristics to attack the Long Tail SEO in order to promote their articles, or ease the stock’s selection in marketing campaigns focus in a specific style.
This API that merchants apply on their websites allows them to improve their search engines and customer’s experience. It is in Luis Manent’s own words, “the best technology in this sector worldwide”.
Projects
The latest project of Wide Eyes Technologies is to create a chatbot for one of its customers. Its plan is deployed in the United States. Its present is to allocate 80% of the budget for investigation.
