For my secondary research I decided to look at other companies who have tried to use a similar technology to help their customers. Places such as IKEA, Specsavers and GAP have all used this approach to make their customers lives easier by effectively offering them ‘try before you buy’.

Competitors:

Fitle –

• provides a service which allows you to take pictures of yourself from different angles and generates what certain clothes would look like on an avatar which is customised to look like you. This is originally my idea for my project but since finding this competitor I am slightly changing my idea from using an avatar to project the clothing on to, to using real time augmented reality where you can map the clothing on to yourself using ‘mirror selfies’. similar to IKEA’s app.
• Positive Learning: I have established that this is a problem which has tried to be solved and has succeeded in a similar way to how I would like to do it.  It has given me a greater idea of how the technology works.
• Negative Learning: The idea I had thought of had already been taken and brought to my attention that it would maybe be too much hassle for customers to create an avatar and use exact measurements, as our bodies constantly change

GAP – https://adressed.gapinc.com/blog/gap-ces-announcement-2017-dressingroom-app

• Called the DressingRoom – GAP have created a virtual dressing room which allows users to create an avatar with the exact measurements of your body to create a realistic augmented reality version of yourself trying their clothes on. The app lets you point the camera anywhere and place whichever clothes on to the avatar. Although this idea is extremely similar to mine, the factors which differ the two is that GAP use an avatar and is only available for GAP customers, whereas my product works in partnership with all major online clothing companies and uses augmented reality to map the clothes on to your own body in real time using the camera on the customers smart device.
• Positive Learning – I have established that this is something which clothing companies want to try and introduce for their customers and that it is something the customers do want. Also the fact that this system works and has been tried before.
• Negative Learning – The idea which I originally had was to create an avatar, which GAP have already done. This means I had to adjust my idea for my product.

Inspiration & Analogous Research

IKEA –

• have created an app called IKEA Place. This app allows you to point your camera on a smart device at the room you want to put your new furniture in and choose which furniture you wish to try. It positions the furniture in your room so you can have an exact idea what the product would look like before buying. This is the same technology which I have decided to look into for my own product as it shows in real time what the product would look like on your body.
• Positive Learning: It has taught me the technology and how it works to provide a benefit to their customers.
• Negative Learning: IKEA are not a technology company so I am just taking their idea, there is no real indication as to how the technology works.

Specsavers

• Specsavers have introduced a feature on their website which allows you to pick a pair of glasses which you’re interested in potentially buying, and lets you try them on before you buy. They use the camera on your smart device and augmented reality to position the glasses on the customers face so they have a clear idea of what they will look like in them glasses without having to go in to the shop.
• Positive Learning – although this isn’t in the clothing industry, this feature shows that more people are wanting this opportunity to know what things will look like before they commit to purchasing the product. And this is something that people are interested in using when shopping online.
• Negative Learning – The app reviews for this idea are very low (1 or 2 out of 5 stars). Many users saying that the concept is a brilliant idea, but the design of the app makes it difficult to use.