Asos trials AR tool to give customers idea of fashion fit

Asos is trialling a new tool for its mobile and desktop sites to show customers what particular garments look like on models of different body types.

The See My Fit tool allows customers to see a particular piece of clothing on a model matching their own dress size and height to give them an idea of what a piece of clothing might look like on them.

The online retailer partnered with Israeli company Zeekit to implement the augmented reality (AR) tool, which digitally replicates pictures of some of its dresses over images of different models.

Tim Carey, senior content manager at Asos Studios, said: “With this trial of See My Fit, we’re using the latest in AR technology to put the power in our customers’ hands, so they can choose to view a dress on the model that they most identify with, in a way that wouldn’t be possible using traditional model-shooting techniques.”

The brand hopes the service will help give customers more information upon which to base their purchases.

When shopping using the retailer’s online or mobile site, garments using the AR feature will have a button next to the picture of the clothes labelled “models” which when selected will show the customer several different models, along with the size of the dress they are wearing and their height.

By picking the model who is closest to the customer’s height and size, shoppers are able to see what the garment is likely to look like on them.

The current trial includes 800 dresses on the site, and each of these dresses can be seen on 16 different models who range from a size four up to a size 18, depending on what sizes the selected garment is available in.

The See My Fit tool takes into account the size, cut and fit of each dress, then shows how it would look on the selected model in an image that “appears similar to real photographs”.

Zeekit CEO Yael Vizel said: “Together with Asos, we have a shared mission to make online fashion as personalised and easy to use as possible for customers. With our patented, artificial intelligence-based AR technology powering See My Fit, we can connect the dots between what you see when shopping and what you receive at home, giving customers more confidence in purchasing the products they love.”

The full trial of See My Fit follows a smaller trial of the Zeekit technology in 2018, which used a smaller number of models to see how the technology would work.

Over the past few years, Asos has launched several technology trials in the aim of providing customers with a good online experience.

In 2019, the online retailer launched a Virtual Catwalk feature on its app to allow users to view products on models on their smartphones as if they were in front of them.         

The brand also introduced its Fit Assistant feature in 2018, which uses customer details and machine learning to determine what size of garment a user should order to obtain the right fit.

To offer a more personalised user experience for customers using its app, the online retailer introduced Your Edit, which shows customers products they might like; Style Match, which recommends complementary or matching products based on past purchases; and You Might Also Like, a curated product carousel based on a customer’s interest.

Asos also launched Enki, a natural language chatbot on Facebook Messenger, to help customers discover products, and a voice search to allow customers to use the Google Assistant to search through products using voice, both examples of how the retailer is experimenting with different ways to shop and navigate its products.

As stated by its former digital product director, each of the brand’s new features aims to solve a customer problem, or make the customer experience better – modern consumers, especially in the 20-something age bracket Asos is aimed at, are increasingly expecting a more personalised and convenient shopping experience.