While the muchawaited COVID vaccines have finally begun rolling out, it’s obvious that all of us won’t be out and about any time soon and will continue relying on online solutions for much of our daily lives, including shopping, be it for cauliflowers or couture. And Augmented Reality (AR) platform and AI solutions provider KiksAR is betting heavily on the latter.
“My co-founder and I worked with AI solutions to consumer perceptions for big brands like Big Basket and other sale platforms, and dealt with how the customers would view the products,” says Kavita Jha, CEO at KiKsAR, recalling the initiative behind starting the company, noting, “Over the course of our work, we realised two things. One is, no matter how good the product or the many recommendations it has, it will have minimal purchases if the presentation is not good.
Secondly, things like accessories and apparel see a huge return percentage because these might be a different shade from what is on the website or just not look as good on you as you thought.” KiKsAR uses advanced image intelligence, computer vision, and 3D modelling to deliver immersive virtual try-on experiences, styling, and fitment across fashion retail categories.
“We operate on the philosophy that online consumers know what they want, how much they want to spend on it, but may not always know whether it suits them without visual feedback, the kind like our AI provides, including various fittings and styling options tailored to you,” elaborates Jha. Fashion retailers can, and do, use KiksAR’s patented 3D creation platform that transforms 2D images into 3D to help customers virtually try on eyewear, jewellery, makeup, watches, apparel, and accessories ranging from the ubiquitous masks to turbans, scarves, and hijabs.
With literally its next step, the company’s platform will let people virtually try on shoes. When t h e company launched two and a half years ago, it had a firstmover advantage in the eyewear category. As a result, “I can confidently say we are the market leader in the eye wear category. Some of our India- based clients include Titan Eye Plus, Essilor, Coolwinks, Specsmakers, Vision Rx Labs, GKB, and YuBingo,
while prominent American and European eyewear companies also use our technology,” says Jha, adding that there are on-going talks with other foreign brands across other categories too.
The platform works on desktops, laptops, and iOS as well as Android devices. Retailers that use KiksAR, gain access to a comprehensive administration terminal with complete SKU (stock-keeping unit) management and analytics. The platform offers fitment and styling advisory. It automatically detects the size of a person’s face and body to fit a product accurately. As would be obvious, the pandemic was a game changer for the company, which was launched in August 2018.
“Honestly, just as Covid-19 struck, we had six live customers in one category. Today, there are more than 35+ live ecommerce sites and 250+ stores running the KiksAR platform across four different categories,” enthuses Jha, adding that KiksAR has grown by 483 per cent and expects to grow to be in 100+ ecommerce sites and 2500+ stores in the next 18 months.