When buying clothes online, one of the most difficult things is finding the exact size of the garment, because many times the sizes do not have the same measurement in all stores or brands. That makes many people choose not to buy online. To solve that, avoid returns and increase sales, three Uruguayan friends created Fitit, a company that offers a technological solution to find the ideal size.
Using an own garment as a reference, software takes measurements and recommends a product of a similar size, based on artificial intelligence.
Daniel Bella is an accountant and has a clothing business plus sizeand there he met this problem of the fashion industry, that is why, when his clients asked him for a garment or the making of something specific, he would ask them for the measurement of a clothing that they already had and that fit them well, to compare measurements and recommend them. one size.
With that he was generating a database, and those were the first steps of something that a year later he turned into a company with his friends Alan Rytt and Dan Bzurovski, specialists in computer science and artificial intelligence; and that today can be found as a button called “know your size”, in various e-commerce stores of Uruguayan fashion brands, such as Legacy or Mistral.
What started as a conversation with friends about something on the market turned into a team effort and a business. “The development was fast because we understood the problem well and we worked hard”highlighted Dan to Coffee & Business.
Good size and care
With technology the three Uruguayans They decided to attack a market problem and also to promote environmental care, because each return involves “reverse logistics” for companies, which has to do with a freight for the return and another for the next shipment, as well as a review of the product, billing, etc., explained Alan. In addition, customers are offered a better online user experience, while trying to increase conversions, that is, sales, they detailed.
The fact that Fitit is oriented towards caring for the environment was one of the reasons why the three friends won the Innovative Entrepreneurs award of the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII), with which they obtained capital to develop the business.
Fitit’s business model is B2B2C, Business to Business to Consumer, that is, a service that is sold to stores so that they can offer it to final consumers. The technology was launched a few months ago in ecommerce that works with the Uruguayan ecommerce platform Fenicio, and now Entrepreneurs plan to expand in Latin AmericaThat is why they are already in contact with foreign companies.
“The beauty of this is that we have the possibility of internationalizing without having to go abroadbecause there are many multi-brand groups that have stores in Uruguay and in other countries”, commented Dan.
How is it used?
Using Fitit’s technology is simplewhen entering the ecommerce, choosing an item and pressing the “know your size” button, a camera will open, if done from the cell phone, or a QR code if done from the computer.
The following steps are simple: spread the garment on a flat surface and put an identity card on it, then take a photo and determine the characteristics of the garment, for example if it is oversized, high or low shot. For the peace of mind of the clients, the entrepreneurs ensured that once the photo is uploaded, the ID data is covered, for security, since the only thing that is used of the document is its measurement.
The identity card will work as a rulebecause, from the photo the technology will draw lines that will automatically allow you to get the exact measurements of the garment and find the size. Once the garment is measured, the data will be displayed in real time on the ecommerce screen. The same time that a click lasts, delays the recommendation.
Once the clothes are photographed the file is saved in a virtual cabinet which is shared among all the stores that have the Fitit service. This allows you to ask for size recommendations in different stores without the need to photograph the clothes every time you want to buy something.
In order for all the photos to be similar and the measurements to be taken correctly, the camera has built-in certain angles and rules that must be respected. If the photo is being taken at an inappropriate distance, for example because the garment does not fully fit into the frame, or at an angle that does not allow measurement, this will be marked in red and will notify the user that it is wrong.
As the entrepreneurs explained, they chose to use the identity card as a reference for the measurements because it is similar in size to other documents in the region, which allows them to internationalize the service to Latin American companies without making major changes to the system.
Minds that complement each other
For them, having entered the market is something important, and that it worked because the three profiles are very different and complement each other, they commented. Alan is an accountant and has a postgraduate degree in Big Data Analytics and a Master in Big Data; Dan has a degree in Multimedia Design and has experience in technology and Daniel, in addition to being an accountant, has a postgraduate degree in Organizational Information Systems and Management of Information Technology Companies.
With a view to strategy, business and technology, the three friends shouldered a venture that has plans to grow.
Although they now offer the service to measure clothing, the next step is to move to the measurement of footwear, taking the identity card and a sole as a reference.
