Many consumers love thrifting because they enjoy the treasure hunt experience, especially in physical stores. With shelves stocked high and clothing racks packed tight, one might never know what they’re going to find and ultimately buy.
But online shoppers tend to expect just a bit more guidance, which is why ThredUp has unveiled a suite of new AI-powered shopping tools designed to make finding unique fashion finds faster and easier. Customers browsing ThredUp’s marketplace of more than four million items now have access to AI-powered search capabilities that are built on advanced machine learning algorithms developed to understand natural language and visual cues.
Shoppers now have access to:
- Natural language search: Customers can now use more natural search terms to find specific products. Queries can be general (such as “floral dresses”) or highly specific (like “tank tops for the 4th of July”).
- Image search: Shoppers can upload photos, including images of specific garments or even social media posts, to find identical or similar items within ThredUp’s inventory, so they can re-create looks or discover items based on their visual preferences; and
- Style chat: A new AI-powered chatbot will serve personalized product recommendations within ThredUp’s inventory based on submitted prompts. Customers can further refine results by adjusting specific parameters such as color and style as well as garment length and coverage.
“AI presents an enormous leap forward for secondhand shopping by bringing emotion and storytelling to the millions of unique shopping journeys that happen regularly on ThredUp,” said James Reinhart, CEO of ThredUp in a statement. “Given the breadth of our offering, with millions of unique items available in our marketplace at any given time, generative AI technology is accelerating how we’re changing the way consumers shop and providing the easiest and most fun way to shop sustainably.”
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