When their friend ordered a wedding lehenga online and it did not fit her, Noida-based friends Sakshi Chhapolia and Ankit Kumar got the idea to form Aaiena — a complete contactless experience to solve fashion and fitness industryrelated problems.
“We recognised this to be the most common problem related to fitting trials that many customers face, and because of which business owners experience huge losses due to the return rates,” adds Chhapolia. Together, towards the end of 2018, the duo launched Aaiena, an AI, AR-based body measurement sizing software, which works just by inputting four simple details height, weight, front photo and side photo.
“After getting these details, the software provides solutions for the fitness concerns, body and problems that may arise while shopping. Considering that garments are only made according to certain size charts, Aaiena curates personalised body sizes, even suggesting which particular brand product will fit best on their sizes,” adds the 24-year-old entrepreneur. It took them over a year to build this product.
But as they were set to launch the Sizing software in 2021, Kumar, previously an ISRO scientist, passed away. “I still remember that day. All of us were in office, extremely ecstatic about the successful testing of size recommendation software called Sizing, and its launch. When we were about to leave for home, suddenly Ankit had a cardiac arrest.
We rushed him to the hospital, but within an hour, he was declared dead,” shares Chhapolia, who was previously an NCSC junior scientist position holder. When Kumar was the partner, Chhapolia was the COO of the company, handling all the operational parts. “But after Ankit’s demise, I had to also shoulder the responsibilities for the company’s growth and expansion,” says Chhapolia, founder of the parent company, Sankshit Pvt. Ltd. Despite the personal loss, the team launched the product in the market in April, and currently have over 20K users.
Who is Aaiena meant for?
Chhapolia says, “In simple words, Aaiena is your virtual lifestyle coach. It is designed in such a way that it leverages the customers (B2C) as well as the sellers (B2B).”
The company get the size charts of brand who take their subscriptions and the size of the customer. “We compare both and pick the best suitable size for the customers. Earlier, brand websites would only have ‘add to cart’ and ‘buy now’ options. Now, there will be another option called ‘know you size’ to help people choose the most suitable size for them. This is our USP,” adds Chhapolia.
Aaiena has 160 brands including Marine Bazaar, Benzor, Glitz & Glamour, Look@Me, KaySons, Real Designer Studio, Nice Collection, YouAreNext, Leather House, Deepak Garments, Mandal Fashion, and offtrot, on board. Sabhajeet Yadav from offtrot, who uses Aaiena, says, “Our sales have taken an upsurge given the features that this brand has integrated for us. Sizing has made the overall experience of shopping very convenient for our customers, saving time and effort. Our return rates have gone down.”
Another vertical in the pipeline
The team will launch a new product called Ettire in September. Ettire is a 3D virtual trial room. “It consists of a real- time mechanism that expedites the trial prospects. It creates a 3D real time avatar based with the same body dimension of the person in frame. It will show how a particular dress will look on you,” says Chhapolia, adding, “The difference between Sizing and Ettire is that Sizing helps people compare the sizes and choose the perfect fit for you, while Ettire lets you see and feel the attire on you.”
New fitness app
A totally different venture from Aaiena, Aaiena Fit app will launch this weekend, which Chhapolia says “is a comprehensive health platform that will give accurate body measurement, so users can keep tab of their daily body transformation. The app works as a virtual lifestyle coach with the help of in-built AI technology that calculates the BMI and gives exact body size. Based on the real time measurement, the app will update the users whether one is overweight/underweight. Accordingly, the app will recommend a daily diet suggested by the nutritionist and plan the exercise routine to stay fit. In addition to this, on detecting any abnormalities which need medical attention, it will recommend a list of doctors based on the location of the user.”