Zalando to Add ChatGPT-Powered Fashion Assistant to Online Platform

Zalando will add a ChatGPT-powered fashion assistant to its online platform for fashion and lifestyle.

The fashion assistant’s generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities will enable it to help customers find and select items based on questions they ask using their own words or fashion terms, Zalando said in a Wednesday (April 19) press release.

“As a leader in fashion eCommerce in Europe for 15 years, we have consistently embraced new technologies to enhance our customers’ shopping experience,” Zalando Vice President of Personalization and Recommendation Tian Su said in the release. “We are excited to be experimenting with ChatGPT to help our valued customers discover even more fashion they will love.”

As PYMNTS reported in March, a growing number of brands and retailers in today’s competitive eCommerce landscape are adding AI tools.

By leveraging AI technologies to provide personalized product recommendations, virtual try-ons, chatbots for customer service and predictive analytics for inventory management, merchants can create personalized shopping experiences, increase customer purchase intent and minimize the risk of returns.

The beta version of Zalando’s fashion assistant will be offered to select customers in Austria, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom by spring, with support in both English and German, according to the press release.

Following the launch of the beta version, Zalando expects to continue developing its applications of generative AI, possibly adding personalized recommendations based on the customer’s brand preferences and sizes and expanding into fashion and beauty advice or outfit creation, the release said.

“This is just the beginning; we are committed to understanding our customers’ needs and preferences even better, and we are eager to explore the potential that ChatGPT can bring to their shopping journey,” Su said in the release.

Zalando is the latest online platform to announce plans to deploy generative AI tools to help shoppers sort through the products it offers.

For example, Mercari, a marketplace platform for secondhand items, has added a ChatGPT-powered shopping assistant that provides product recommendations based on customers’ chat prompts.

Similarly, Klarna is working with ChatGPT creator OpenAI to use ChatGPT as a personal shopping assistant that will respond to customers’ prompts by delivering product recommendations and links to the items on Klarna’s search and compare tool.

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