[GUEST POST]* You could be using an AI personal shopper online without even knowing about it. Dressipi, a London based tech company, give customers an exclusive personal shopping experience with a little help from machine learning.

What actually is Dressipi?

The company was founded by entrepreneurs Donna North and Sarah McVittie in a bid to offer personalised shopping advice and guidance.

The intelligent suggestions offered by Dressipi are tailored specifically for your body shape and style preferences. This not only helps the shopper in their browsing but also aids in reducing the number of returned items.

“We teach you how to know what styles suit your shape – and suit your style better. That totally eliminates so many garment choices that you have to make and takes the stress out of that aspect of shopping” – Natalie Theo, Style Director at Dressipi.

How does Dressipip work?

By using unique data sets combined with artificial intelligence, Dressipi helps stores offer clothing suggestions which are suited to a person’s browsing and purchase history. Most online shopping retailers offer generic recommendations based on the item you’re viewing, Dressipi allows these recommendations to be based on your own personal tastes.

This works by tracking your browsing and buying behaviour to give insights as to why certain items are returned. This helps brands suggest the choices which are most appropriate.

Imagine Dressipi as your own personal stylist (but free!). It creates a profile for you, looks at how you shop and the type of trends you show an interest in. It’ll handpick the items it thinks will be best suited to you. The more you shop, the better its suggestions will be.

Is AI the future of online shopping?

The question is, can this technology actually know what you want to wear? In our experience, the answer is definitely yes! Don’t think of this as just a tech company with cold algorithms which don’t know anything about fashion. Behind the scenes are some seriously experienced stylists who know the industry inside, out. If anyone knows how to bridge the gap between technology and fashion, it’s these guys.

“We have the best algorithms for fashion in the world, basically. We are leading in this field” – Nick Landia, Chief Data Scientist at Dressipi.

You’re probably already using Dressipi

The company already works with 30% of the women’s fashion market. This includes some High Street favourites like Topshop, Wallis, John Lewis, Shop Direct and many more. When you’re browsing these sites, the recommendations you see are from Dressipi.

We expect other brands are going to get involved with this soon. The tech is clearly improving revenues for those using it – it also cuts down the number or returns and unwanted items too!

The next step

Dressipi are now looking to use their technology to help us shop instore. About 80% of fashion is still bought in a shop, the company want to explore how we buy on the High Street. They’re looking to get to the stage where we take our own Dressipi profiles to the streets to get advice and guidance while browsing the rails of our favourite stores.

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*Disclaimer: Guess post from Innovate UK

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