Personalisation trialled for eBay fashion service

Wednesday, August 14, 2013 - 13:46 by Sarah Collinson

Auction giant eBay has revealed that it is launching a new service which will allow those who love shopping for fashion items via safe shopping online to get recommendations about the types of products that they might like.

The site is partnering with Dressipi to provide useful tips on hot items of clothing and accessories, all thanks to a technology known as Fashion Fingerprint.

The idea is that each user will get a completely bespoke set of recommendations based on their preferences and tastes, with automated algorithms helping to make sure that these are as accurate as possible, according to Retail Gazette.

Since eBay has literally millions of fashion listings, it can be difficult to find what you are looking for, but this new service should help to streamline the shopping process.

eBay is not the only firm to be interested in Dressipi's solution as other trials with big name e-commerce companies have already commenced.

Consumers who are used to shopping on the high street will appreciate that most outlets they visit are designed to cater to the widest possible audience, which of course means that it is very difficult to offer any real degree of personalisation without risking alienation of some groups.

Thankfully the digital technologies which power shopping online can overcome such issues and ensure that customers are treated to an experience which is tailored to their needs and personal sense of style.

The automatic recommendation technology will be going live in a limited test via eBay's UK site this month and part of it will be driving by interactions from customers.

People will be able to register their approval or dislike of fashion items, allowing the site to work out what products they are likely to approve of in the future.