Shootify, a startup that applies generative artificial intelligence to the e-commerce sector for the fashion world, announces that it has completed a pre-seed investment round of €300,000 led by Zest and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo through the Magic Mind accelerator and a number of business angels.
Accelerated in 2024 by Magic Mind, an accelerator dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence-based start-ups, Shootify has developed a proprietary generative AI model specialised for the fashion industry, with the aim of radically transforming the production of images for the industry’s e-commerce sales channels. Shootify’s platform in fact ‘brings to life’ simple photos of garments, transforming them into professional photo shoots. Shootify’s platform allows brands to use both virtual and real models. This versatility makes it possible to meet different market needs and consumer preferences, enhancing the effectiveness of a sales channel that is increasingly central to the industry.
According to the E-commerce Observatory 2023 Politecnico di Milano, the growth trend in e-commerce purchases continues (+13% compared to 2022, for a total value of EUR 54.2 billion) and mainly concerns clothing and fashion (+7%). In this context, the relationship between brands and online consumers is increasingly oriented towards greater transparency and respect for purchase expectations.
This is why the solution developed by Shootify has found attention from important brands in the sector, starting with GAS, which thanks to Shootify was able to produce high quality images for its GAS x Pramac capsule collection in just a few days, even before the collection physically arrived in Italy, obtaining some of the best converting photos on the site.
“Fashion e-commerce is facing critical challenges,” explains Luca Ambrosini, CEO of Shootify (pictured with the team), in a note. “Brands spend enormous resources on product photos, yet 70 per cent of consumers do not identify with the models used, leading to high return rates. Our technology allows brands to create high quality images across a variety of models, reducing costs and increasing conversions. Shootify’s mission is twofold: we free fashion brands from onerous image production costs by offering a solution that drastically cuts costs. At the same time, we redefine the standards of fashion e-commerce, enabling engaging and personalised online shopping experiences. We envision a future where every consumer can view garments on models that reflect their physicality, increasing conversions and reducing returns. With Shootify, brands reconcile operational efficiency and excellence in customer experience”.
Shootify has already demonstrated promising results with its first customers, including a 70 per cent reduction in image production costs and a 90 per cent reduction in the time needed to produce images.
“We are convinced that in Europe, innovation in generative AI is in the development of industry verticals and use cases. The big LLM models such as ChatGpt, Llama or Gemini represent the infrastructure on which to build these verticals, as we have already seen with the cloud and the whole SaaS world that has resulted from it. In order to build successful verticals, it is therefore very important to have specific knowledge of the different fields of application, their business and market dynamics, as well as mastery of the technologies. The Shootify team possesses both and adds to them a great speed of execution in an area, that of fashion, where Italy and Europe certainly have an advantage over the rest of the world,’ comments Michele Novelli, partner at Zest Investments.
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