{"id":30571,"date":"2018-11-13T01:11:27","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T06:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/shazam-for-clothing-making-inspiration-to-purchase-possible\/"},"modified":"2018-11-13T01:11:27","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T06:11:27","slug":"shazam-for-clothing-making-inspiration-to-purchase-possible","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/shazam-for-clothing-making-inspiration-to-purchase-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Shazam for Clothing \u2013 Making \u2018Inspiration to Purchase\u2019 Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

Visual Inspiration that pushes your intent to purchase fashion is everywhere \u2013 From a beautiful summer dress spotted on your favourite blogger on Instagram to the perfect pair of leather boots on the street. The process from inspiration to sale \u2013 inspiration, search and then finally purchase – has traditionally been broken and not smooth.<\/p>\n

The Future of E-commerce<\/strong>
\nGlobal smartphone users are estimated to cross 6 billion mark by 2020, says Baidu.[1]<\/a> This implies that over 6 billion people will have access to the camera of their phone on a daily basis. It also estimates that m-commerce purchases will make up 49 percent of total online retail commerce in 2020, a significant increase from 29 percent in 2015.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Given the growth in smartphone users and m-commerce purchases, e-commerce players ought to make the purchase journey of a customer easier. This has led to e-commerce players such as ASOS to build their Reverse Image 性视界 tool. It allows customers to take a picture of something they like and use it to search for similar products in ASOS\u2019s product catalog.<\/p>\n

ASOS<\/strong>[3]<\/a>
\nASOS (est. 2000) is a fashion retailer, which offers fashion products for men and women. The company sells more than 85,000 branded and own-brand products for men and women through its localised mobile and web platforms in the UK, the US, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Russia and Italy. The company had 13.4 million active customers (customers who shopped at ASOS in the last 12 months) as of December 2016.<\/p>\n

ASOS launched the \u2018Style Match\u2019 feature in the US in March 2018 for iOS and Android App versions. Users can search for their favourite items using keywords or upload a picture of an item they really loved in the 性视界 Bar. ASOS returns search results with the exact items visitors are searching for or akin to something they\u2019re looking for.<\/p>\n

\"Business<\/a>
Asos\/Business Insider<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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How does Visual 性视界 Work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Image search – a text-based query is taken and the best image\/visual match is returned. This is quite different than the modern visual search method. Visual search – takes an image as its \u2018query\u2019, instead of text like in Image 性视界.
\nVisual 性视界 employs a method called \u2018Computer Vision\u2019 \u2013 a subfield of machine learning \u2013 that helps computers to locate, identify and analyse images the same way a human being would and provide appropriate outputs.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Steps in Visual 性视界 –<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Query Understanding<\/span>: Here the system derives information about the product from the image. Information such as colours, visual features and category.
\n2. Object Detection<\/span>: An image may contain multiple objects. Object detection uses Machine Learning to detect the relevant objects using previous search history trends. The machine learns what objects customers have been interested in. The system uses positive feedback loops to determine if the searches are correct \u2014 if users engaged with results for a dress, then it was probably a dress. With that, the system has lots of ways to train these machine learning algorithms.
\n3. Object 性视界 and Output Matching<\/span>: Given an input image, the system finds the most visually similar objects from its product catalogue with similar attributes and characteristics. The system then maps those items to the original image and returns search results most relevant and similar to the query image using AI.<\/p>\n

Why is Visual 性视界 Important to ASOS?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fashion is visual in nature and as a user when you\u2019re searching for something you might use text which differs from person to person. Google 性视界 or website may give different search results for 2 people looking for the same item. Visual 性视界 is hassle free and requires fewer clicks to arrive at a product. Ease of product discovery and fewer number of steps will result in a better product funnel. Users don\u2019t have to page through the retailer\u2019s 85000+ inventory list anymore, this feature does the \u2018fashion legwork\u2019.<\/p>\n

In summary, if customers use these tools \u2013 we will witness a huge shift in the way purchases are made. Customers when in retail stores can click pictures and search for products on various shopping apps to find the most economic option. This will have a huge impact on ‘brick and mortar’ and e-commerce retailers both, forcing them to either offer products that can\u2019t be found online or better prices. Either way \u2013 The customer wins!<\/p>\n

Challenges and Next Steps\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n