The North Face launches AI shopping experience with IBM and Fluid

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Dec 14, 2015

The North Face on Monday announced a new interactive shopping experience powered by Fluid’s Expert Personal Shopper (XPS) and IBM’s Watson.

The AI shopping experience allows for customers to use natural conversation to shop online through a dialog-based recommendation engine. Fluid’s XPS software creates a personalized shopping experience and utilizes Watson’s natural language processing ability to refine product selections.
 
XPS is currently in beta form in a month-long pilot test on the outdoor apparel brand’s e-commerce site. As more customers use the software it will refine and improve recommendations. Thus far, customer engagement on the XPS software averages two minutes in length, has a 60% click-through rate to try product recommendations and majority of users said they would use it again.

"The retail industry, like many others, is awash in structured and unstructured data -- from social media to text messages to customer reviews. By tapping into Watson, retailers now have the power to turn this data into meaningful insights that can make the shopping experience more intuitive, informed and enjoyable," said Stephen Gold, IBM Watson VP Business Development & Partner Program. "Market leaders like The North Face and Fluid are demonstrating how cognitive technologies can redefine how brands connect and engage customers."