Ms. Kavita Jha, is erudite with a strong academic background. She has completed her MBA from Pune University. Kavita holds deep domain experience of 15+ years. Prior to starting KiKsAR which began in 2019, she was a Vice-President at Ramyam Intelligence Labs, an Indian technology product startup in Analytics & AI/ML space. She took the company from scratch to a thriving European M&A in 5 years.Kavita has enjoyed the roller coaster ride working for Technology startups handling global responsibility across geographies. She has been responsible for Strategy, Product Management, Pre-sales, Engineering, Business Development & Human Capital Management at the top most level and large teams.
With an increasing number of brands resorting to customised services, immersive technologies and e-commerce to give desired shopping experience to the customers, shopaholics have now shifted their focus towards a more socially distant ritual i.e. trying on clothes through the webcam on phone.
As highly value creating brands started leveraging innovative technology to facilitate customers with one-of-its kind services, it bought the fashion retail industry under pressure to innovate through customer interaction and also, product ranges. The retailers are now following digital-first approach and continue to provide engaging shopping experience through personalised services and virtually “try on” cosmetics, shoes, jewellery, clothing, eyeglasses, or even a new haircut on smartphones or laptops.
Personalisation in Retail
According to a study conducted by BCG and commissioned by Google, customers increasingly prefer a shopping experience that’s easy and fast and that helps them make purchase decisions.
Once a unique marketing strategy, personalisation, has now become a requisite for survival in the retail segment. Brands are providing personalisation across a range of products and features – colour, lens thickness, texture, design of eyewear; stone shape, the finish of a diamond ring; or fabric, collar shape, the pocket position of a shirt to name a few. Further, many brands are investing aggressively on the technology front to enhance the personalised customer experience which in turn boosts their profits. In the years ahead, advances in technology will be leveraged proactively by marketers to create much more personal experiences across channels, moments, and buying stages.
VTO + Configurator
A typical use case would be an engagement in which a boy would like to buy a ring.
While sitting at home, he would just open the online jewelry application and would create a personalized ring for his fiancée. The boy could further try-on the ring on the girl’s finger by merely using her hand’s picture. Such personalization on such momentous occasion could instill an everlasting memory for them.
This delight is possible by AI powered VTO configurator with Fashion Advisory. With such immersive experiences, AR VTO would catalyze online sale faster than ever before.
Configurator is an online platform to customize products without the need to go to a store. While Configurator has been around in Ferraris and Mercedes-Benz, it hasn’t been very prominent in Fashion retail.
A lot of platform provides configurators for Eyewear, Jewellery and Apparels for many global brands. With configurator, a shopper places an order once he/she is satisfied with the customization and virtual try-on experience. This helps in curtailing e-commerce returns, which is abysmally high.
- Eyewear Configurator customizes eyeglasses and sunglasses by personalizing frame color, frame textures, lenses thickness, temple color, design and nose pad.
- With Jewelry Configurator, one gets to virtually try-on rings of various shapes (oval, round, pear, princess), purity, stone quality, color, style, desired diamond layers (no halo, single halo or double halo), metal (yellow gold, white gold or rose gold) and inscribed names.
- Apparel Configurator empowers a man or a woman to customize one’s dress as per one’s choice. For instance: a girl could virtually try-on from multiple collar design patterns, colors, pocket position, collar style, stitch pattern, fitment, button texture, color and clothes pattern.
In summary, the configurator gives the customer flexibility over traditional constraints and is revolutionary to boost business in the post pandemic world.
Summing Up!
Technology lets the consumers enjoy the feeling of walking around the store and try-on different products without moving out from home in addition to getting complete product information on one click. Also, it has enhanced in-store shopping experience through personalised services at every touch point. The brands that stay ahead of these trends will get an edge. After all, technology is the future!