Amazon, the massive online retailer, revealed today that it is now utilizing AI technology to help customers in their online clothing purchases, following its recent use of generative AI to improve its product ratings. The company says that to power four AI-powered features that will assist customers in finding clothing that fits—a persistent difficulty when shopping online and the primary reason for clothing returns—it is now utilizing big language models, generative AI, and machine learning.
(Image Source: Techcrunch.com)
The average return rate for online clothes orders is 24.4%, which is eight percentage points higher than the overall level of online returns, according to a survey by Coresight Research. Retailers and brands also reported increased online returns during the previous two years. This is frequently partially because modern shoppers purchase an item in numerous sizes or colors and then return those that don’t fit. After all, house try-on and return shipping have gotten easier.
Amazon has incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) into the online shopping experience in four ways to solve this challenge:
- Customized size recommendations
- A “Fit Insights” tool for sellers
- AI-powered highlights from other customers’ fit ratings
- Redesigned size charts
Amazon Fashion employed AI to create a deep learning algorithm with tailored size recommendations, assisting customers in finding the best-fitting size in various styles.
This approach considers the customer’s fit preferences, product ratings, and the size link between brands’ sizing systems. When a customer’s size requirements vary, the information is merged in real-time to propose the best size that will fit them. The organization also employs AI to assist customers in finding the fashions that suit them best. However, this feature may not work well if a family member frequently shops online for someone else (such as their son or daughter), as this could confuse the algorithm about the customer’s size compared to the child’s.
However, “Fit Review Highlights,” another new tool, could be able to aid with that issue. This feature is an expansion of the recently added AI-generated Customer Review Highlights, which were released in August 2023 and offer a concise paragraph synopsis that includes the features and sentiment of the customer along with clickable buttons highlighting important product aspects.
Amazon gathers details on the fit of the clothing from customer reviews using the Fit Review Highlights feature. These details include fabric stretch and size accuracy of the garment on particular body parts. According to Amazon, large language models gather information from customer evaluations, and artificial intelligence (AI) condenses the results into a user-specific, easily readable highlight. Because they wouldn’t have to sift through hundreds of assessments to determine how well the item fits, this might help users save time.
Additionally, the shop uses AI to enhance the website’s sizing charts. Amazon Fashion obtains and cleans product size charts from many sources using huge language models, then converts the data into standardized sizes. By doing this, duplicate data will be eliminated, and missing or erroneous measurements will be automatically corrected, resulting in more accurate charts that fit.
Sellers will also have access to information driven by AI. Sellers may better explain sizing to customers using the Fit Insights Tool from Amazon Fashion, which gives them insight into what buyers require in terms of fit, such as knowing if an item runs smaller or larger.
According to Amazon, they can utilize this information to direct their future manufacturing endeavors. In this instance, in addition to returns, size chart analysis, and customer evaluations, massive language models extract and aggregate customer feedback on fit, style, and fabric. Machine learning is also utilized to find if anything could be improved in the brand’s sizing charts.
These are just a few AI innovations that Amazon has recently used to enhance the online shopping experience. Apart from the highlights of user reviews, Amazon also introduced generative AI tools to assist sellers in improving their product photos and writing product descriptions. The retailer anticipated that the latter might increase click-through rates by forty percent. The corporation has added AI to other consumer products, such as Fire TV Alexa and Amazon Web Services.
(Information Source: Techcrunch.com)
