eBay UK teams up with Dressipi for personalized fashion searches
Searching for that ultra-fashionable onesie on eBay requires the patience of a saint, or at least it did. The UK arm of the auction giant has teamed up with startup Dressipi to offer a personalized shopping service for style-conscious women. Users are required to create a dress recipe Fashion Fingerprint comprising their vital statistics and clothing preferences, and then Dressipi's service will scour eBay looking for appropriate apparel. At some point part-way through the six month trial, the service will also gain like and dislike buttons to further hone the recommendation engine, putting it one step ahead of Facebook in that regard.
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EBAY PILOTS FASHION PERSONALISATION WITH DRESSIPI IN THE UK
eBay is working with Dressipi to trial a personalised recommendation service for fashion shoppers in the UK. The six month trial will see Dressipi's unique personalisation technology integrated with eBay's Fashion Gallery, giving eBay shoppers instant access to retail inventory, specially selected to suit their personal style and size.
Dressipi is a London-based fashion and technology start-up that has gained unrivalled insight into the minds of female shoppers by combining variables such as their shape, size and brand preferences to develop a unique Fashion Fingerprint ™.
This Fashion Fingerprint ™ is then used to help narrow down the selection of clothes from the many millions available online to a selection that will fit and flatter a particular individual. Its recommendation services are already in use or on trial with a number of major clothing retailers with positive results.
The integration of Dressipi to eBay's UK site will offer female shoppers two levels of recommendation, as they browse thousands of items from the high street brands in the eBay Fashion Gallery.
Customers will initially see a curated selection of clothes, shoes and accessories selected from Dressipi's team of personal stylists. For those who choose to complete a simple Fashion Fingerprint ™, Dressipi's automated technology will then personalise those recommendations. This technology gathers information about a shopper's shape, size, brand preference and confidence levels, before using this insight to deliver tailored recommendations about which garments available on eBay would fit and flatter them.
Dressipi will soon add a further feedback mechanism to its on-site recommendation service that will provide additional insight to eBay and its sellers, with functionality that will allow consumers to 'like' and 'dislike' individual items.
Eben Sermon, Director of Relationship Marketing and Loyalty, eBay, said: "eBay is dedicated to delivering innovations that can inspire and personalise the eBay experience to allow shoppers to connect with the items they love in new and engaging ways. From the high street brands in our Fashion Gallery through to the launch of a personalised shopping experience with eBay Feed, we are committed to making eBay a great place to shop and excited by this latest pilot."
Dressipi co-founder Donna Kelly said: "We founded Dressipi because we believe that personalisation is the future of ecommerce. In an environment where choice is near infinite, the retailers who prosper in the future will be those who use a combination of editorial judgement, customer insight and sophisticated algorithms to help the consumer narrow down the selection of goods to those that they like and will want to buy. eBay has been at the forefront of ecommerce for as long as it's been around, and we're delighted to have the opportunity to work with them."
