Successfully launches shop concept offering glimpse of the future for
fashion retailers and shoppers
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 9, 2018--
GUESS?, Inc. (“GUESS”) (NYSE: GES) has reached another major milestone
in its partnership with Alibaba Group (“Alibaba”) (NYSE: BABA) to bring
artificial intelligence to the fashion world to provide customers with a
more enriching shopping experience that combines online and offline
shopping behaviors.
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Rounding out a comprehensive partnership that began in 2013 with the
launch of GUESS in Tmall, this year, GUESS also became a global
strategic partner of Alibaba’s FashionAI project, an initiative to give
shoppers a glimpse of what the future of fashion retail will look like
powered by artificial intelligence. With the launch of the interactive
concept shop driven by Alibaba AI, GUESS and Alibaba saw the
implementation of the O2O (online-to-offline) project come to life,
marking the maturity of the unified customer experience concept.
On July 4, 2018, Alibaba launched the pilot FashionAI concept shop on
the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) campus, pairing GUESS’
extensive retail knowledge and latest collections with advanced Alibaba
AI and other technologies on the sidelines of the 2018 Fashion and
Textile Conference. Besides the FashionAI concept store’s futuristic
appeal, the project was aimed at providing a better retail experience
for shoppers and to help brands better use analytics in ordering and
maintaining inventory.
“As technology changes how we interact, it also affects how we shop. As
our customers evolve, it is critical that we evolve with them,” said
Victor Herrero, CEO of GUESS. “Our strong and long-lasting partnership
with global technology leader Alibaba puts us ahead of the market in our
industry. Together, we are able to innovate in real time. This is the
future of retail and we plan to continuously invest and adapt to our
customers’ needs in this changing retail landscape.”
“GUESS and Alibaba share the same vision to understand customer
behaviors through technologies,” said Zhuoran Zhuang, Vice President,
Alibaba Group. “With GUESS’ retail expertise, we are able to train and
refine our FashionAI system, and marry technology with fashion in a way
that’s never been done before. We are looking forward to deepening our
partnership to innovate personalized services offered in retail shops.”
The FashionAI concept store featured smart racks, smart mirrors and
next-generation fitting rooms. Alibaba’s FashionAI system underpins the
stores, offering up mix-and-match clothing and accessory suggestions for
customers from the GUESS line, as well as items sold by others on Tmall
and Taobao, China’s biggest B2C and C2C platforms, respectively.
Through over 5 years of strong partnership, GUESS and Alibaba have seen
highly successful results, including GUESS’ status as one of the most
popular brands in the fashion apparel category on Tmall. GUESS’ store on
Tmall has achieved more than 100% compounded growth over the last
3 years. Incorporating O2O New Retail concepts have also resulted in
overall strong performance and growth for GUESS in the Asia Pacific
region. With the advancements in artificial intelligence and the
continuing partnership with Alibaba Group, GUESS anticipates extending
the experience globally as the future of retail to better serve their
customers and plan for growth.
About GUESS?, Inc.
Established in 1981, GUESS began as a jeans company and has since
successfully grown into a global lifestyle brand. Guess?, Inc. designs,
markets, distributes and licenses a lifestyle collection of contemporary
apparel, denim, handbags, watches, footwear and other related consumer
products. Guess? products are distributed through branded Guess? stores
as well as better department and specialty stores around the world. As
of May 5, 2018, the Company directly operated 1,020 retail stores in the
Americas, Europe and Asia. The Company’s licensees and distributors
operated 624 additional retail stores worldwide. As of February 3, 2018,
the Company and its licensees and distributors operated in approximately
100 countries worldwide. For more information about the Company, please
visit www.guess.com.
About Alibaba
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The
company aims to build the future infrastructure of commerce. It
envisions that its customers will meet, work and live at Alibaba, and
that it will be a company that lasts at least 102 years.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180709005279/en/
Source: GUESS?, Inc.
Guess?, Inc.
Allison Shafii, (213) 765-5703
ashafii@guess.com
or
Alibaba
Group
Candice Huang, (202) 716-7446
candicehuang@alibaba-inc.com