{"id":6016,"date":"2017-04-28T17:29:05","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T21:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/one-size-does-not-fit-all-metails-virtual-fitting-room\/"},"modified":"2017-04-28T17:40:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T21:40:34","slug":"one-size-does-not-fit-all-metails-virtual-fitting-room","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/one-size-does-not-fit-all-metails-virtual-fitting-room\/","title":{"rendered":"One Size Does Not Fit All: Metail\u2019s Virtual Fitting Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Founded in 2008 and launched commercially in 2012, Metail has developed a virtual fitting room technology that allows consumers to generate a 3D model of themselves, the \u201cMeModel\u201d, by uploading a photo and entering just a few key body measurements (height, weight, age, bra size, bust, waist and hips). The result is an image that reflects size and shape with 92% to 96% accuracy and the ability to rotate and change hairstyle. Selected items of clothing are then superimposed over the models, and can be viewed from 360 degrees (see images).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Its founder and CEO Tom Adeyoola (see portrait of him), an economics graduate from Cambridge and former Head of Gaming at Inspired Gaming Group, had the idea for his company after his wife complained about her clothes-buying experiences. Metail\u2019s growth has been rapid. The initial $75,000 of funding from \u201cfriends, families and fools\u201d has become a pot of $20 million; in its latest round in 2014, Metail raised $12 million in funding with a new lead investor, TAL Apparel of Hong Kong-based TAL Group, a global leader in garment manufacturing and responsible for making 1 in 6 men\u2019s dress shirts. In 2015, Metail won the \u201cIBM Commerce Ecosystem Technology Innovator of the Year\u201d and, in 2016, became one of the first 30 companies to be involved in the \u201cTech City UK Upscale Program – A network of founders, scaling faster, scaling together\u201d. \"\"<\/a>Metail\u2019s team consists of about 60 people, including 14 PhDs, and is based in London, United Kingdom with additional offices in\u00a0 Cambridge and Singapore. The service is available on mobile, tablet and desktop, and only caters to creating women \u201cMeModels\u201d. \u00a0The virtual fitting room technology solution is typically sold to retailers, who rebrand it so the end-consumer sees it integrated into the store\u2019s e-commerce platform. Partner retailers have included Tesco, Zalando, House of Holland, Warehouse, Rocket Internet\u2019s Dafiti and an increasing number of Asian retailers, e.g. Thailand\u2019s BeesYou, India\u2019s abof.com and Singapore\u2019s SingTel. 750,000 people have already created \u201cMeModels\u201d, and online retailers are expected to digitize up to 200,000 garments with Metail this year, up from 40,000 last year.<\/p>\n

Value creation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing something very visual, getting to the clothing most relevant to you really quickly, not being intimidated by infinite choice and having a fun and engaging experience \u2014 that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to deliver,\u201d explained Adeyoola. Through \u201cMeModel\u201d consumers can shop, interact with clothes and get a preview of how garments might drape against their body type so that they end up with clothes they actually want to keep. Furthermore, Metail has developed an intelligent algorithm giving personalized size and style advice based on \u201cMeModel\u201d data, previous purchasing behavior and data of other customers (see machine learning diagram).\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Retailers have to cope with fewer returns, while also boosting brand engagement and loyalty. This alleviates a major problem for them; traditionally, up to half of online apparel sales are sent back, often due to poor fitting. In addition, Metail offers data analytics to the online retailers (see consumer insight dashboard), which illustrates how consumer-facing AR applications can drive back-end benefits: \u201cOur big partner in India is using data that is coming through to re-cut their clothes to match the fact that India is not a one-size demographic \u2014 people are taller in the North and shorter in the South. They are starting to rethink and recut clothes,\u201d said Adeyoola. \u201cFor another retailer, for example, we saw that only 20 percent of their customers matched the clothes that were cut. By resourcing the garments, they could do a better job of matching that demographic.\u201d\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Metail is convenient, easy and quick: From the consumer\u2019s point of view, generating the \u201cMeModel\u201d is done from basic information and in only ten seconds. A\u00a0user only has to create a “MeModel” once as it is portable across supporting sites. From the online retailer\u2019s point of view, digitizing clothing is quick and cheap to avoid having to charge retailers for it. Metail was able to reduce the cost of making 3D images of garments from between $300 and $400 an item to less than $10, and halved the cost of 2D images for catalogues by introducing \u201cComposed Photography. Models only need to be photographed once, whilst the collection is shot separately on custom-made mannequins. Techs then dress the model in the online retailer\u2019s clothing as if she was photographed wearing it.<\/p>\n

According to research conducted by Metail in conjuction with Tufts University and the Kellogg School of Management, the Metail\u2019s AR application can boost sales by 22 percent.<\/p>\n

Value capture<\/strong><\/p>\n

Metail charges retailers a basic license fee for incorporating the technology into their online shopping portals, and then takes a share of sales.<\/p>\n

Going forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the MeModel to reflect the way consumers buy and then use fashion\u201d, said Adeyoola. \u00a0That spans ideas such as an advice model that suggests outfits from the consumer\u2019s wardrobe depending on today\u2019s weather, or a styling service to help people find clothing consumers have seen in magazines or just on someone walking down the street. The long-term vision is for Metail to become the \u201cGoogle of sizing and shape\u201d with data from its\u00a03D visualization technology: The more consumer use the \u201cMeModel\u201d in their clothing related experiences, the better the recommendations and search skills will get through artificial intelligence and \u201cdeep learning\u201d. Metail will be the custodian of the world\u2019s size and shape dataset, like Facebook is of the world\u2019s social graph, and become the Google of sizing and shape through being the access channel for users to quickly and easily find and get recommended clothes that they will like and which will look good on them.<\/p>\n

However, Metail isn\u2019t the only one tackling the fashion e-commerce fitting problem. A number of startups across Europe are cropping up in this space: Fits.me, founded in 2010, has raised about $14.3 million in funding and offers a similar virtual fitting room solution that involves creating a robot mannequin based on the consumer\u2019s measurement and allowing them to try on clothing to choose the best fit. Bodi.me utilizes 3D scanning and lets shoppers create profiles with a webcam.<\/p>\n

With eight patents and 23 pending, Metail should continuously focus on the protection of its intellectual property. However, since the \u201cMeModel\u201d shows promising result, the attention can be shifted slightly from product and technology development to scaling the company. In order to build a platform and preempt competition, Metail needs to build relationships across the fashion retail industry and attract more clients. Furthermore, the company needs to build a consumer-facing mobile app on its own – a departure from simply powering the virtual fitting room offerings \u00a0of partner retailers \u2013 to implement the wardrobe advice model and clothing search service. \u00a0Then, it should continue its international expansion, which has led the company already to Germany, South America, Singapore, India, Vietnam, Korea and Taiwan. Thereby, it mustn\u2019t forget to keep the digitization process quick and affordable, because the business relies on retailers digitizing all of their clothing offer \u2013 that is, mapping the exact sizing online of tens of thousands of garments that come to market every single day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n

Company Homepage. http:\/\/www.metail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Company Overview of Metail Limited. http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/research\/stocks\/private\/snapshot.asp?privcapid=217057502<\/a><\/p>\n

Edwin Jiang (Feb 28, 2017): Virtual Reality: Growth Engine for Fashion? https:\/\/www.businessoffashion.com\/articles\/fashion-tech\/virtual-reality-growth-engine-for-fashion<\/a><\/p>\n

Vicki Owen (Feb 25, 2017): Metail’s message to retailers: Try on this tech for size if you really want to make clothes that fit. http:\/\/www.thisismoney.co.uk\/money\/smallbusiness\/article-4259972\/Try-tech-Metail-size.html#ixzz4fXlQJtxY <\/a><\/p>\n

Claire Hutchinson (Nov 28, 2016): Entrepreneurs: Goodbye fitting-room blues as Metail adds new dimension to buying fashion online. http:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/business\/entrepreneurs-goodbye-fittingroom-blues-as-metail-adds-new-dimension-to-buying-fashion-online-a3406421.html<\/a><\/p>\n

David Prosser (Aug 30, 2016): Meet Metail, The Next Big Thing In Online Fashion. https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/davidprosser\/2016\/08\/30\/meet-metail-the-next-big-thing-in-online-fashion\/#3357a26f111b<\/a><\/p>\n

Charmaine Li (Oct 28, 2014): One size does not fit all: why London-based Metail just raised $12 million for its \u2018online fitting room\u2019. http:\/\/tech.eu\/features\/2943\/metail-profile-virtual-dressing-room\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Steve O’Hear (Oct 17, 2014): Virtual Fitting Room Startup Metail Raises Further $12M \u2014 Shunning UK VC Money Along The Way. https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2014\/10\/17\/metail\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Rebecca Burn-Callander (Oct 16, 2014): Virtual fitting room firm raises \u00a37.5m as consumers find new ways to shop online. http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/finance\/businessclub\/11168037\/Virtual-fitting-room-Metail-firm-raises-7.5m-as-consumers-find-new-ways-to-shop-online.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Steve O’Hear (Nov 5, 2012): Metail, The Virtual Fitting Room You\u2019ve Probably Never Heard Of, Partners With Warehouse, Shop Direct, Following Tesco Trial. https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2012\/11\/05\/metail-the-virtual-fitting-room-startup\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London-based virtual fitting room company Metail provides AR try-before-you-buy solutions and sets out to become the Google of sizing and shape <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":833,"featured_media":6017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[1460,1139,1514,1515,366,1513],"class_list":["post-6016","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-augmented-reality","category-deep-learning","category-fashion-platform","category-google-of-sizing-and-shape","category-machine-learning","category-virtual-fitting-room"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/assignment\/what-is-the-future-of-vr\/","yoast_head":"\nOne Size Does Not Fit All: Metail\u2019s Virtual Fitting Room - Digital Innovation and Transformation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-digit\/submission\/one-size-does-not-fit-all-metails-virtual-fitting-room\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"One Size Does Not Fit All: Metail\u2019s Virtual Fitting Room - 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