Alibaba Empowers Fashion Retail with Artificial Intelligence

HONG KONG, July 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- An Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) artificial intelligence (AI) system is ready to recommend your next outfit at a concept store in Hong Kong showcasing a new model for the digitization of fashion retail.

Alibaba's FashionAI brings AI to the fashion world and offers customers personalized mix-and-match recommendations. With an ability to "learn" the latest fashion trends and tips from analysis of data generated by Alibaba's ecosystem, the proprietary model behind the technology is based on consumer insights from the ecosystem, images of more than 500,000 outfits put together by stylists on Taobao, as well as fashion expertise from Tmall partner brands. Cross-brand recommendations are also provided by consumers looking for the most fashion forward creative advice.

A concept store embodying the technology will open on the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus from tomorrow to July 7.

"FashionAI embodies our thinking of what the future of fashion retail could look like, and an exploration of using technologies to better understand and cater to consumers' fashion needs," said Zhuoran Zhuang, Vice President, Alibaba Group. "With the latest AI technologies, like machine learning and computing vision, FashionAI can now recommend items that match your personal style. That gives imagination to consumers and injects new ideas into fashion brands and retailers to rethink their business and sales models. Leveraging AI in fashion, therefore, offers many untapped opportunities for fashion retailers."

The deployment of FashionAI in a concept store is the latest showcase of how New Retail technologies can breathe new life into traditional offline retailing. New Retail is Alibaba's concept to seamlessly integrate online shopping and offline commerce to provide consumers with the ultimate of ease, convenience and choice.

New Retail Experience Powered by Alibaba FashionAI

Key features include:

AI-based mix-and-match suggestions: The FashionAI technology can identify the fashion elements including colour, styles, attributes (such as short or long sleeves, round or V-neck neckline) of a particular fashion item picked up by a customer, and provide AI-based mix-and-match recommendations on the smart mirror inside the store. The mirror also has a "Taobao Wardrobe" section, which shows the possibility that consumers can find matching pieces from the GUESS line inside the store for any of their previously purchased items on Taobao or Tmall, China's biggest C2C and B2C retail platforms, respectively.

Smart lock to capture consumers' preference: A smart lock equipped with Gyro-sensors, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) chip and Radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip will be attached to each fashion item. Garments and accessories touched or picked up by consumers will be automatically displayed on the RFID-enabled magic mirror nearby.

New fitting experience: The FashionAI concept store offers a new fitting experience. After consumers select any items on the smart mirror that they want to try out, the retail staff will be alerted by the in-store system and then prepare garments and accessories in the fitting area for consumers, avoiding the hassle of having to lug multiple products and sizes into the room.

The purchase record in the offline store will be automatically reflected on consumers' mobile Taobao or Tmall accounts, so consumers can find even more mix-and-match recommendations from other brands in Taobao and Tmall, expanding the recommendation capability beyond the limits of an offline store.

Garments and accessories in the concept store are provided by GUESS Inc., a strategic partner of Alibaba on the FashionAI project. GUESS has had flagship store on Tmall since 2013.

Located in the Logo Square of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus, the FashionAI concept store will be open to the public from July 5-7, on the sidelines of the Artificial Intelligence on Fashion and Textile Conference 2018, co-hosted by Alibaba and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. On July 5, The FashionAI Global Challenge 2018, a global competition on the application of AI in fashion through Alibaba Cloud's crowd intelligence platform Tianchi, will unveil its champion.