How Technology Will Make Fashion Even Smarter

It’s true that robots will one day take over the world, but don’t be alarmed. They just want to be your stylist. If you look at how the market is taking shape, technology will make fashion more responsive to customers.

Customer behavior drives the technology that will one day drive how brands sell online. We see physical retail become more about the experience, less about the transaction. Consequently, brands need tools to capture their share of online sale through attentive customer service.

This will mean one day adding smarter customer service to your omnichannel strategy. And that will very likely require artificial intelligence and data analytics to meet customer demand through eCommerce channels. We already see examples of how technology will ultimately make fashion business better.

Robots Get the Big Picture

An important part of the story is how machine learning and big data combine to analyze fashion trends. According to MIT Technology Review, researchers from Cornell University collected 100 million Instagram photos to determine how AI can help make fashion smarter.

First, the team collected images posted by Instagram users in 44 cities, in five-day windows between June 2013 and June 2016. Then, with facial recognition and other software, they filtered the set to the 15 million photos that showed faces and upper bodies.

The researchers used machine-learning algorithms to sort for jackets, scarves, neckties, glasses, hats, eyeglasses, and accessories. Finally, they subdivided these categories by color and pattern, clothing-type, necklines style, and sleeve length.

Finally they used one more “clustering” algorithm to track how the styles varied across time and location.

The result demonstrated how fashion brands might use AI to determine changes in preferences for color and styles. For example, they discovered that black and brown was more common in winter, blue more common in summer, and red dropping in popularity altogether. (However, the AI did recognize small seasonal spikes in red around Christmas, thanks to Santa hats.)

“The combination of big data, machine learning, computer vision, and automated analysis algorithms would make for a very powerful analysis tool more broadly in visual discovery of fashion,” the team concluded.

Chatbots Make Fashion Smarter on Facebook

Chatbots already act as middlemen between customers and businesses. And Facebook proves to be one of the more active platforms for this development.

According to VentureBeat, 100,000 chatbots now exist using Facebook Messenger. So it is already creating a viable new channel to complement customer service.

Chatbots rely on data and machine learning to automate customer engagement.

One example of how fashion brands can use chatbots comes from a company called Mode.ai.

According to PAYMNTS, Mode.ai describes its chatbot as a “virtual stylist” that makes suggestions based on textual prompts from the customer. The company plans to add capacity to make suggestions based on uploaded images and to create let customers virtually model clothing based on their photos and measurements.

Technology to Make Fashion Manageable

Before a new fashion brand thinks about chatbots, however, they must have a plan for meeting customer demand. Thus, you must start out answering the basic questions.

First, what kind of channels will you use to sell? Secondly, what is your strategy for selling and fulfilling orders online? Finally, what kind of technology will you need now to manage orders and stock that suits your business plan?

The good news is the technology is there to make fashion business smart now.