London – “We use real women’s measurements to create products that fit women
better,” explained Heidi Zak, CEO and co-founder of lingerie label ThirdLove, on how the start-up uses data
during her panel discussion at the Fashion Summit earlier this month. Part
of the world’s biggest technological conference,
to some it may seem a tad unusual that an underwear brand would be invited to speak
at a tech event – but Zak’s ThirdLove is no ordinary lingerie brand.
Those who are unfamiliar with the San-Francisco based start up, may be
surprised to learn that Third Love not only offers its own line of
lingerie, but also a personalized shopping experience designed to help
women find their perfect bra fit in under 15 minutes, all from the comfort
of their own home via an iPhone app. The app uses computer vision technology, which analyses body
size in relation to the iPhone size through two photographs, to determine the user’s correct bra size. No tape measure
needed – just a wall-mounted mirror, a basic, supportive under-wire bra (no
push-up or sport bras allowed), a tight fitting t-shirt and an iPhone 4 or up.
Best known for being the only lingerie sizes to offer half sizes, (40
percent of their customers are a half size) Zak, a former analyst and
Google employee, attributes much of ThirdLove’s success to her background.
“What Google teaches you is how not to be afraid of crazy ideas, but rather
to embrace them instead,” said Zak to FashionUnited at the Web Summit. “I
think that most technical corporations are the opposite – they think let’s
do what prudent, let’s do what works. I think Google is the total opposite.
Crazy ideas are good, they encourage their employees to do things that are
a bit out there because some of the most crazy ideas that people scoff at
are the ones that change the world.”
Although most people probably did scoff at Zak and her partner, venture
capitalist Dave Spector, idea for ThirdLove and the app, the brand has
grown rapidly over the past two years. The intimate start-up recently
announced its first retail partnership with US department store
Bloomingdale’s to create an exclusive capsule collection for their 100
percent program and is currently working on another partnership for 2016.
However Zak is quick to note that ThirdLove’s success did not stem from
any passion for fashion. “I am not a fashion designer and I didn’t know
anything about bra production before creating Third Love, which is probably
good because then I may have never done it,” she said with a laugh.
So where did the idea for ThirdLove and its complimentary
fit app stem from then? “The idea came from bra shopping and the
frustration that it is,” explained Zak. “I think every woman around the
world faces the same thing – it’s not normally something a woman gets
excited about, going bra shopping. You might be excited to go buy a dress
with your friends or buying a bag online, but bra shopping is not up there
on the things I want to do with my free time list. And that really made me
realise there is an opportunity there to create a better experience for women.”
Exactly what this better shopping experience would offer was built around
the ideas of fit, function, comfort and innovation within the lingerie
market – notably one of the industry’s toughest markets to tap into. “What
I asked was how do you create a better fitting experience. You’d hear this
statistic that 80 percent of women are wearing the wrong bra size and I
just asked, well why is that? Most women haven’t been fit for a bra in
forever, they don’t know their size and they just keep buying a 34B or C
and try to make it fit when no, they are a 32G or something,” continued
Zak. “So the idea to create the app and the sizing technology was really a
challenge for us to create another tool for women to get sized.
When developing the app, which is currently only available for iPhone (an
Android version under way) Zak revealed that she questioned whether there
was another way for them to size women from home. Although there have been
many innovations within the fit sector over the past five years, ranging
from body metrics to full body scanners, Zak and her team finally realised
that the solution to their fit issue could be found in the palm of most
consumers hands. “We talked to a lot of PHDs in computer vision and they
thought there was a possibility that it could work with a smartphone. So we
started to build it and it ended up working. It didn’t happen without
trials and tribulations – it took over a year to build the technology but
it does work.”
With over a third of ThirdLove customers using the app to find their
right fit, Zak is surprised by how popular it has become amongst users. However,
of course it is possible to order from Third Love without using the app.
Any user wary of taking a photo with the app and privacy issues surrounding
their data need not worry as the lingerie brand never stores any photos or
takes ownership of them. “Everything is basically done natively via the
smartphone – everything takes place on your own device. And it’s ok if a
woman doesn’t want to use it, I am not saying that in order to buy a bra
from ThirdLove you have to use the sizing technology – it’s just another
option for women.”
A photo posted by ThirdLove (@thirdlove) on Nov 5, 2015 at 6:00pm
PSTThe app has in turn become a useful tool for Zak and her team, as it proves
her with unique data that can be used in many ways. “The biggest way we
use data is for designing product, and ensuring fit, but it’s also about
trying to make more personalized recommendations,” explained Zak. “I think
that we are only at the very beginning of doing that well. So part of what
our goals are for next year is to use that data and create better
experiences for women and really understand what that means for her
journey. That means if you are a women and you buy a certain bra first,
what does that mean about your likely cadence based on women who might be
similar in both size and taste, how can we make it easier for someone to
purchase.”As an e-commerce company, ThirdLove uses data in a thousand ways, from
tracking their market growth, to gathering real-time data on their supply
chains, to streamlining their turnover by tracking what sizes sell well to
using data as a touch to point to learn where their customer is coming in
from what most importantly what they want. Zak noted that they will also be
tracking their sales at Bloomingdale’s to see how their half cup sizes will
sell and their regular sizes, as 40 percent of their online clientèle are
half sized. With the retail partnerships, it is up to the in-store sales
associates to ensure ThirdLove’s vision is successfully translated offline
as well as online.“Everything can be measured online that’s the amazing part about
selling product online”“Everything can be measured online that’s the amazing part about selling
product online,” continued Zak. “From clicks, to eyeballs, to falls off in
your funnel to any marketing channel, every single thing you do can be
measured. And if you are not doing that you are missing out on a ton of
data and a ton of ways to optimize your business for your customer. If I
think about it like I am running a Facebook ad and you see it and you click
on it and you buy from us – what does that mean about who you are and your
behaviour and potentially how I should talk to you?”Although the industry is just beginning to full grasp the endless possibilities
within the realm of data usage, what other opportunities does Zak foresee for “I think that fashion is at very nascent stage of using technology and
that we are just scratching the surface. I truly, truly believe that the way we
shop for product will be really different in five to ten years…there will be even more chances to gather data and it will be interesting to
see who owns that data and how it starts to paint a picture of who the
wearer is and their lifestyle – in the same way Google knows a lot and
about how we are.”“Fashion tech should be a blend of creative and data – although the core of
a brand should always be a person. It deeds to have that sense of
authenticity and stand for something to thrive.”