Dive Brief:
- DTC lingerie brand Adore Me has launched AM by You, a generative AI-powered custom design tool that allows consumers to create their own customized bralette and panty set.
- Priced starting at $54.95, the program offers customers the ability to choose colors and patterns with simple text and lets the AI system do the designing.
- Customized designs are then put through a multi-step moderation process by the Adore Me team and are not printed until approved. Designs can be flagged for even a “low level of potential concern” and if they are denied, the order is canceled.
Dive Insight:
Individual customized product, when approved, is printed by Prompt.ly. While the cost to the consumer fits within the company’s standard retail range ($39.95 to $59.95), the profit margins initially will be smaller for the brand.
“There is additional cost in the printing process, as we have someone directly overseeing each print to ensure quality, which does have a margin impact in the short-term,” Ranjan Roy, vice president of strategy at Adore Me, said in an email.
There also is a general cost of AI compute per prompt that the brand has had to incorporate. “Both of these represent costs that will come down as we scale these efforts,” said Roy, “but the decision to sell this within our traditional price range at the outset was to make generative AI-design products as accessible as possible.”
Adore Me, which operates as a separate entity within the Victoria’s Secret family of companies, believes the AI technology is a breakthrough in terms of advancements in clothing design.
"Up until now, customizable clothing has largely been reserved for simple images and words,” Morgan Hermand, founder and CEO of Adore Me, said in a statement. “We are harnessing generative AI to deliver completely unique designs from start to finish, while maintaining our core values of inclusive sizing, sustainable manufacturing practices, and exceptional quality."
A certified B corporation, Adore Me was founded as an online lingerie startup in 2011 by Hermand. The brand caters to women of all sizes and utilizes its Home Try-On commerce service to distinguish itself from the competition. In November 2022, Victoria’s Secret announced it would acquire the brand for $400 million.
The jump into AI by Adore Me follows a rush by many brands and retailers into the space as a way to ease the online buying experience for consumers. A recent Adobe survey revealed that almost 60% of respondents said that generative AI had improved their online shopping experience.
Among retailers and brands that are experimenting with AI technology to enhance their overall business platforms: Estée Lauder Companies and Microsoft are creating an AI innovation lab; grocer Albertsons is partnering with a technology company to enhance its media planning, media operations and content creation; and Best Buy is partnering with Google Cloud on a virtual assistant.
