Amazon's AI Powered Apparel Tool

Amazon is aiming to improve online fit and reduce returns, while sharing insights with brands to inform future product development.  One of Amazon’s latest initiatives is to transform the online shopping journey by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into the apparel selection process. The e-commerce powerhouse introduces four AI-driven features specifically designed to tackle the ongoing issue of accurately finding well-fitting clothing, a major contributor to the return rates that brands see online. 

Why is this important? 

We all know that sizing inconsistency across brands is common, and it is frustrating for customers who know that size 8 or size 12 jeans for example won’t likely fit the same from different shops. Amazon Fashion wants to solve this problem by using artificial intelligence to standardise sizing with their new tool that is available so online shoppers can better guess their fit and will ultimately lead to reduced returns for brands. 

As per Coresight Research's findings, the typical return rate for online clothing orders stands at 24.4%, surpassing the overall return rate for online purchases. The frequency of home try-ons and simplified return procedures has emphasised this trend, resulting in a surge in returns for retailers and brands. Customers frequently opt for ordering various sizes or colours and subsequently returning items that fail to meet their expectations, thereby amplifying the already elevated return rates. 

Amazon’s Fit Insights tool will gain insights from customer feedback relating to an item’s fit, style and fabric. It uses customers reviews with returns and size charts to identify defects in size charts. This will allow brands to relay this information into future designs or the manufacturing process.  

Amazon’s AI Powered Solution 

Amazon has leveraged AI to introduce several innovative solutions to address the fit-related challenges in online apparel shopping. 

• Tailored Sizing Recommendations: Amazon Fashion introduces a sophisticated deep learning algorithm powered by AI to assist customers in discovering their ideal size across diverse styles. This algorithm dynamically considers size correlations among different brands, product reviews, and real-time customer fit preferences, delivering precise size recommendations. 

• Review-Based Fit Highlights: This feature extracts insights about apparel fit from customer reviews, presenting a succinct summary of size accuracy, garment fit, and fabric stretch. It aims to save users time by providing personalised and easily digestible highlights from a multitude of customer reviews. 

• Enhanced Size Charts: Amazon Fashion utilises AI to extract, clean, and standardise product size charts from various sources, ensuring more precise and consistent sizing information for customers. 

• Seller-Focused Fit Insights Tool: Sellers gain access to AI-powered insights to better comprehend customer fit preferences, empowering them to enhance the communication of sizing information and guide future manufacturing efforts based on customer feedback and returns data.  

The integration of these AI-driven features underscores Amazon's dedication to elevating the online shopping experience for its customers. Through the incorporation of AI across different facets of its platform, Amazon remains at the forefront of innovation, consistently enhancing and transforming the way customers engage in online shopping for clothing and other products.