{"id":5071,"date":"2017-04-29T12:44:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-29T12:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rsoftsolution.com\/blog\/how-echo-look-could-feed-amazons-big-data-fueled-fashion-ambitions.html"},"modified":"2017-04-29T12:44:09","modified_gmt":"2017-04-29T12:44:09","slug":"how-echo-look-could-feed-amazons-big-data-fueled-fashion-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/how-echo-look-could-feed-amazons-big-data-fueled-fashion-ambitions.html","title":{"rendered":"How Echo Look could feed Amazon\u2019s big data fueled fashion ambitions"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

This week Amazon took the wraps off a new incarnation of its Alexa voice assistant, giving the AI an eye so it can see as well as speak and hear. The Echo Look<\/a>\u00a0also contains a depth sensor that\u2019s being used, in the first instance, to\u00a0create a bokeh effect for a\u00a0hands-free style selfies feature that Amazon is hoping will\u00a0sell the device\u00a0to fashion\u00a0lovers, by making their outfits pop out against the bedroom wallpaper, and making them\u00a0more eager to socially share.<\/p>\n

The Echo Look app is where users can view the style selfies (and videos) they\u2019ve asked Alexa to record\u00a0for them (she\u00a0indefinitely stores a copy for Amazon too<\/a>). But the flagship feature of the app is\u00a0a fashion feedback service, called\u00a0Style Check, which Amazon says will utilize\u00a0machine learning to rate\u00a0fashion choices and help users choose\u00a0between outfit pairs. And ultimately, presumably, give\u00a0their entire wardrobe a score. Albeit, the feature\u00a0is using\u00a0(human) stylists too, at least for now, to help train what Amazon surely hopes will be\u00a0entirely\u00a0robotic style recommendations down the line.<\/p>\n

The app will also suggest clothes for users to buy based on their style selections \u2014 opening up\u00a0another revenue stream for\u00a0Amazon, and one that could prove pretty sticky if Echo Look delivers on its\u00a0promise of furnishing users\u00a0with a personal stylist whose killer feature is\u00a0the ability to shop tirelessly on your\u00a0behalf. This new voice-controlled,\u00a0Internet connected Echo camera\u00a0is designed to\u00a0condition users\u00a0to feed\u00a0it with the training data Amazon needs to build\u00a0a fashion savvy\u00a0AI. As data grabs go, it\u2019s exceedingly\u00a0well dressed.<\/p>\n

As I wrote in July 2015<\/a>, adding a camera to Echo makes perfect sense for Bezos\u2019 massive fashion ambitions. With an eye to see you, Echo Look promises to contain your\u00a0self-image better than a mirror by claiming to know\u00a0which of your outfits is the fairest of them all. Fashion is often sold as something feel good and\u00a0confidence building \u2014 a way to belong and blend in within a peer-group. But equally\u00a0style can be deliberately different;\u00a0the essence of\u00a0individual self expression. So whether there\u2019s an AI that can usefully\u00a0cater to all those different\u00a0facets\u00a0remains to be seen. But for many shoppers\u00a0the primary desire they have\u00a0for the clothes they wear can be boiled down to looking good. So\u00a0Amazon is positioning Alexa\u00a0to sell that hope as a service.<\/p>\n

Buying clothes is a recurring need; both a practical necessity and\u00a0a way to keep up with changes in\u00a0style and taste. Like buying groceries, it\u2019s a type of shopping without end. Which\u00a0is why Amazon is fixated on\u00a0both spaces. \u201cIn order to be a $200bn company we\u2019ve got to learn how to sell clothes and food,\u201d Jeff Bezos\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0as long ago as\u00a0a decade \u2014 displaying the long term thinking that has enabled the ecommerce giant\u00a0to slow-grow its business over more than 20 years from an upstart online bookseller\u00a0into today\u2019s sprawling digital marketplace whose upwardly thrusting\u00a0arrow declaims\u00a0its mission to deliver everything.<\/p>\n

From household staples to fashion destination?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Amazon Prime is the membership club that sells a subscription to\u00a0convince people\u00a0to lock themselves in to buying more and more from Amazon. Notably, a recent\u00a0addition to the Prime perk list is an\u00a0Amazon own brand men\u2019s dress shirt brand, called Buttoned Down. Here the company\u00a0is selling wardrobe staples\u00a0that, if they bore a different label, would cost a whole lot more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And while a fairly\u00a0uniform garment like a dress shirt can make\u00a0an easy recurring purchase, i.e. once you\u2019ve figured out which size fits you, a lot of fashion is intentionally far less predictable. Meaning\u00a0there\u2019s a much\u00a0greater need for style-related try ons. Female fashion especially falls into this category \u2014 hence Amazon heavily focusing the\u00a0marketing for Echo Look on women\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s vast strength is how its various parts link and pull\u00a0together (like Prime) to build lock-in by\u00a0embedding more and more utility into the core platform. So\u00a0Echo Look \u2014 which at first glance might seem a bit of a niche product (at least from a male perspective) \u2014 is designed to lay important\u00a0groundwork for Bezos\u2019 big bet on fashion. The company has already launched a swathe of its own clothes brands in key\u00a0markets. Now, giving\u00a0Alexa the\u00a0gift of sight, opens the opportunity for Amazon\u00a0to get a far more intimate perspective on\u00a0how its customers think about fashion as they try things on in the privacy of their bedroom and ask Alexa to be their fashion judge.<\/p>\n

At the same time the Echo Look aims to shift how Amazon users experience fashion buying via the marketplace. This latest Alexa-enabled\u00a0incarnation means Amazon is no longer\u00a0primarily a vast, impersonal warehouse that\u00a0has\u00a0to\u00a0be manually data-mined to unearth threads you\u00a0want to buy; rather it becomes a style destination in its own right; an app that\u2019s\u00a0savvy about fashion trends and understands personal taste so it can do the leg work and shop for you. At least, that\u2019s the pitch and the promise.<\/p>\n

The ecommerce juggernaut that Bezos controls \u2014 Amazon\u2019s\u00a0market cap is now a staggering $439 billion<\/a> \u2014 has\u00a0not merely been growing in momentum and marketshare because of the huge\u00a0inventory it aggregates and makes discoverable in myriad different ways. But, at least in key markets, because it\u00a0has fixated on\u00a0delivering convenience at faster and faster\u00a0speeds \u2014 building\u00a0distribution and shipping infrastructure that can all but\u00a0eliminate\u00a0the practical\u00a0difference between buying online vs shopping in store. It\u2019s not quite instant gratification but in some cases Amazon is\u00a0pushing very close indeed\u00a0\u2014 with one-hour delivery in some urban areas<\/a> for\u00a0a sub-set of\u00a0products, and\u00a0even delivery within 15 minutes via\u00a0its experimental Prime Air drone trials<\/a>\u00a0(and its eyeing some even crazier<\/a>\u00a0delivery\u00a0ideas <\/a>than those).<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s ecommerce imperative\u00a0is\u00a0to work towards excising the middle ground and\u00a0going direct to the\u00a0customer where the most money is to be made. In fashion\u2019s\u00a0case that\u00a0not only means luring consumers away from retailers\u2019 bricks and mortar stores but, increasingly, moving in on the fashion\u00a0labels themselves. After all, many\u00a0clothes worn by people aren\u2019t bought principally or specifically for the label they bear, but for the utility or passing\u00a0color they offer. Amazon wants \u2014 and clearly feels \u2014 it can dominate\u00a0those types of clothing purchases<\/a>.\u00a0It has the scale, ambition, speed and data to cut itself a very sizable chunk of the fashion\u00a0market, reckons Tom Adeyoola, founder of UK fashion tech firm\u00a0Metail<\/a> \u2014 which has been working on rethinking the\u00a0online fashion\u00a0buying\u00a0experience with\u00a0virtual fitting room and garment\u00a0digitizing technology<\/a>\u00a0for almost 10 years.<\/p>\n

Not just basics and low cost garments that might otherwise have been purchased\u00a0at a supermarket \u2014 but High Street fashion, glossy catalogue brands, and other online clothes retailers. Amazon\u2019s own brand ambitions on the fashion front look almost absolute. At this point its\u00a0own brand\u00a0fashion labels include: women\u2019s fashion\u00a0(Lark Ro, Society New York) and accessories (North Eleven); children\u2019s clothes (Scout + Ro); mens\u2019 suits (Franklin Tailored) and dress shoes (Franklin Freeman). Workout clothes are also apparently incoming<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the industry has been very complacent because they\u2019ve said nobody\u2019s going to buy fashion on Amazon,\u201d says\u00a0Adeyoola. \u201cYou\u2019ll buy cameras and stuff but you\u2019ll not buy clothes. But they\u2019re forgetting that Amazon thinks in five to seven year timeframes. They\u2019ve got all the customer relationships, and they\u2019re good at data, and they\u2019re good at logistics, and they\u2019re good at inventory management\u2026 Amazon went from zero [in clothes sales] to number one in the US in four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0not hyperbole to say many fashion brands and retailers are\u00a0facing a doomsday scenario\u00a0if Bezos is able\u00a0to\u00a0realize the scale of his sartorial\u00a0ambitions. After all, the difficulty of being a\u00a0brand trying to make yourself heard and monetize\u00a0on someone else\u2019s platform is already writ large in the smartphone space, where big name brands are boxed into same-size\u00a0apps, competing with each other for\u00a0discoverability and diminishing attention returns while the platform master\u00a0sits above everything the fray controlling\u00a0access and \u2014 crucially \u2014 knowing\u00a0what the user really\u00a0wants.<\/p>\n

Adeyoola says the retail opportunity Amazon is closing in on is the huge wastefulness of the traditional supply chain, where healthy profit margins are squandered with poor inventory management \u2014 in turn a consequence of a\u00a0failure\u00a0to understand the transformative power of big data.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn clothing\u2026 RRP, in general, the starting point of margin is towards 80 per cent. So manufacturing is only about 20 per cent of that cost. But all of the retailers are making around, at best, three per cent profit. You look at somebody like Asos<\/a> in the last four or five years, they\u2019ve more than doubled sales but their absolute profit number is the same. They\u2019ve added sales for no profit. So Amazon can look at this and say: hold on, you\u2019ve got 80 per cent profit and you waste it all \u2014 this is our opportunity. Talk to a manufacturer and they\u2019ll say that inventory management and everything to do with data is where the retailers are just lazy. They\u2019ve been lazy for too long. And that\u2019s where Amazon is really good. So, in my mind, I look at it and say Amazon could double manufacturing cost, take their standard five per cent or less margin and still be half the price of everybody on the retail market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Amazon\u2019s\u00a0consumer frontdoor has remained fairly consistent (at least until the original Echo popped up), Bezos\u00a0has spend years honing backend infrastructure and tooling up supply chain expertise\u00a0in the areas he\u00a0wants\u00a0to dominate\u00a0\u2014 positioning Amazon\u00a0to be able to offer a more compellingly priced product than high street fashion retailers and\u00a0still make its margin. So\u00a0while retailers continue to waste money on inventory management, Amazon is aiming\u00a0to use data to eliminate inventory entirely.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, for example, it was awarded a\u00a0patent<\/a> for an on-demand clothes manufacturing warehouse that suggests an intent to\u00a0push the boundaries of\u00a0fast fashion even further. Amazon\u2019s\u00a0end game looks very much like\u00a0garments\u00a0made on-demand, locally at the point of order \u2014 thereby vastly shrinking its warehousing and shipping logistics costs. Instead Amazon could\u00a0seed data-fed, just-in-time manufacturing hubs\u00a0in urban centers to\u00a0service demand locally, enabled\u00a0by knowing exactly what its\u00a0customers want, argues\u00a0Adeyoola.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just much less friction,\u201d he says of the\u00a0Amazon approach. \u201cSo sure they don\u2019t have a great consumer user journey now, but they will do \u2014 and in the interim they\u2019ve been doing, effectively, what we\u2019re trying to do, which is digitize the world. They\u2019ve been accumulating all the brands and all the clothes, and getting them onto the system and then learning and understanding where the white space is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u00a0points to\u00a0b2b apparel maker the\u00a0TAL Group<\/a>, which claims to make one in every six men\u2019s shirts sold in the US. But the question is, for how much longer? While its button down dress shirts are priced by retailer partners at $80+, last month Amazon launched their own brand (the aforementioned Buttoned Down) selling shirts starting at\u00a0$40. Aka\u00a0disruption, Jeff Bezos style.<\/p>\n

And\u00a0while Amazon has been using data to optimize its\u00a0supply chain for years, traditional fashion retail and brands are still saddled managing networks of bricks and mortar stores where they\u2019re seeing falling footfall. These physical locations have arguably\u00a0convinced retailers\u00a0to view the Internet as\u00a0just another sales channel, rather than the vital data pipe needed to overhaul all their business and supply chain processes in order to survive as mobile platforms consume their world.<\/p>\n

Again, you could draw a parallel with a former smartphone giant like BlackBerry fixating on its physical Qwerty keyboard\u00a0as a new generation of app-focused touchscreen devices swept in to change everything. Even if some fashion retail\u00a0giants\u00a0technically have the scale and\u00a0resources to adapt to the big data era, none apparently\u00a0has the long term conviction\u00a0to take the plunge\u00a0\u2014 which is enabling\u00a0Amazon to push\u00a0in and sew up\u00a0marketshare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the trend is very straightforward,\u201d says\u00a0Adeyoola. \u201cIn the old days of retail, the battle was for footfall in a shopping mall, footfall on a high street. Now that traffic is time on a phone. So if you think about it in those terms, the channels where retail is going to happen are going to be in those places which have the most time on your phone. So all of the guys who take up the most time and have those customer relationships are going to be those new retail channels \u2014 so it is going to be Amazon, it has to be Facebook, it has to be Google, it has to be Apple. Those guys are going to be those portals through which you\u2019re going to do retail, because that\u2019s where you spend all your time. And all the retailers that have been spending their time building their own websites and building their own apps \u2014 you can\u2019t fight\u2026 You will be like a shop in a shopping mall and the shopping mall is just going to be the Amazon app,\u00a0the Facebook app. And hence the middle retailers\u2026 just won\u2019t exist. You\u2019re going to have to have a real battle to position yourselves in terms of what are you about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, remember the Echo Look\u2019s\u00a0on-board depth sensor? Such hardware could be used to size up people\u2019s\u00a0full length selfies, enabling\u00a0the AI to\u00a0automatically know its owner\u2019s size and recommend correctly sized clothes to buy. At scale, taking measurements from multiple Echo Look owners, Amazon would start to\u00a0build its own dataset for size and fit, which it could use to further feed its clothes manufacturing efforts to enhance and customize garment fit for its own brands. Even \u2014 ultimately \u2014 to offer garments that are custom\u00a0tailored to individual users, on demand but at fast fashion prices.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Adeyoola\u2019s prediction is an entire disintermediation of the retail manufacturing supply chain. \u201cA natural end state for me is that somebody like an Amazon can put manufacturing right next to its distribution hubs \u2014 all of its distribution hubs are optimized for urban centers, you can put manufacturing in those urban hubs,\u201d he tells TechCrunch. \u201cSo if you get enough consumer data then you just create the marketplace for design and you basically make everything just in time, made to order. So you get rid of the inventory problem, you get the stuff made right by the distribution centers to go straight out. And if you had body size and shape data \u2014 that\u2019s what we\u2019re aiming to produce and deliver at scale \u2014 you could then basically shrink that time, you can also move towards an end state of made to measure, and you can deliver within a Prime window.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tailored\u00a0fashion at scale is not all that\u2019s potentially unlocked by the Echo Look\u2019s depth and trend sensing eye. Another technology that could be delivered via this connected camera plus app set-up are\u00a0virtual\u00a0try ons, with the tech becoming\u00a0a trusted conduit\u00a0for Amazon to ask for and receive full length body size measurements, captured from users\u2019 hands free Echo Look\u00a0selfies. With that data it could build an\u00a0accurate 3D body model for each shopper, and \u2014 combined with an inventory of digitized garments \u2014 the Echo Look app could then offer users\u00a0a virtual changing room where they could\u00a0play around trying stuff on\u00a0digitally before they\u00a0buy.<\/p>\n

Virtual try on could be an\u00a0important piece for Amazon\u2019s fashion ambitions because\u00a0buying clothes isn\u2019t\u00a0always just about\u00a0about fit \u2014 especially if you\u2019re contemplating buying\u00a0higher priced, more experimental fashion\u00a0vs wardrobe staples that\u00a0people can\u00a0be comfortable buying without trying. Technology that enables\u00a0consumers\u00a0to judge whether a just encountered fashion style suits without having to physically pull it over your head\u00a0is what virtual fitting room startups such as\u00a0Metail have been working on for years \u2014 aiming to remove a\u00a0last key differentiator for Internet shopping vs\u00a0bricks and mortar clothes stores. It may not yet be mainstream but the promise is clear.<\/p>\n

And with the\u00a0Echo Look, Amazon may\u00a0have created the perfect arena\u00a0to slot in this last\u00a0piece to crown its fashion ambitions. Then,\u00a0with a savvy AI to recommend styles, a virtual body double\u00a0to see\u00a0how potential purchases look, and local manufacturing supporting very fast shipping it\u2019s in a position to\u00a0convince users\u00a0there\u2019s no practical need to ever visit an actual clothes store.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are time sensitive, and we\u2019ve learnt and been programmed now, through the likes of Uber etc, that getting something quickly\u2026 is possible,\u201d adds Adeyoola. \u201cWith Amazon Prime Now you can order something and it be there within an hour. So then why do I need to go on a busy Tube train, travel for an hour to a high street and get hot and bothered?<\/p>\n

\u201cBack in the day going to the shopping mall used to be a leisure activity and fun. It\u2019s just not that anymore. There are other ways to have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

So when does he think Amazon could be in\u00a0a position to deploy\u00a0virtual fitting room\u00a0technology? Adeyoola reckons it\u00a0could bring something\u00a0to market in\u00a0two years \u2014 should the company\u00a0decide it needs to push into the 3D creation space. For now, he reckons\u00a0it\u2019s not clear they are convinced they need it\u00a0yet. But Amazon is\u00a0certainly paving the way to acquire data that could power\u00a0it.\u00a0(On that front it\u00a0also bought\u00a0another 3D\u00a0startup focused on fit for shoes, Shoefitr<\/a>, back in 2015.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe approach that they\u2019re taking with that selfie Look is a low risk one \u2014 which is basically to see whether people will buy the product and use it. And the way that the product is coming out is one which is a computer vision way of learning style, so they want people to take pictures of themselves in garments, and then they\u2019ll try and use computer vision\u00a0\u2014 well, they\u2019ll going to use real stylists to start with to rate stuff \u2014 and then off the back of that work out whether they can basically build an algorithm which can say this is good, this is bad, and then start to use that as a recommendation flow longer term. Which is big, smart value.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey haven\u2019t thought about going into the 3D creation space thus far. And I think that\u2019s because they say, well we\u2019ve got datasets and we\u2019ll use our datasets to improve as a starting point. So I haven\u2019t seen evidence of them wanting to make that jump. And I think they\u2019re probably thinking they\u2019re best place to buy it when they feel it\u2019s tipped over into being a need, rather than still in RD phase. So, for a startup\u00a0like us, having been invited to speak at their European partner conference\u2026 I think it was a means for them to test where we\u2019re at \u2014 and see at what point they might need to either consume or crush.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, if Amazon can deliver on a\u00a0big data vision of custom tailored\u00a0garments\u00a0in fashion\u00a0styles it already knows customers want\u00a0\u2014 and ship\u00a0orders to buyers within a matter of minutes\u00a0\u2014 why then, the bedroom in your\u00a0own home\u00a0effectively is<\/em>\u00a0the changing room.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/ztqgbYtLaSg\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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