AI Case Study
Myntra automates entire design process of t-shirts for its in-house brands using neural networks
The online retailer Myntra has successfully created a machine learning program which is capable of designing t-shirts for its in-house brands. Using generative adversarial networks, sales of these t-shirts have been increasing 100%.
Industry
Consumer Goods And Services
Retail General
Project Overview
Myntra uses an AI program to design t-shirts sold through two of its in-house labels. T-shirts were initially chosen due to the relative simplicity of their design. However, the process was initially guided by trial and error according to Live Mint: "The new machines started producing designs. The first ones were still hideous. The engineers tweaked the algorithms and, a few iterations later, there was improvement. They repeated the process: create the algorithm, keep feeding image data to the GPU, vet the new design, tweak the algorithm accordingly. In January, they thought they had a set of some 30 presentable T-shirt designs, created wholly by the Rapid tech platform. There’s currently a limit to the variety of designs these brands can produce—the technology hasn’t reached a point where it can produce things like T-shirts with complex graphics." The t-shirts are now designed using generative adversarial networks (GANs)
Live Mint reports that there are three reasons why Myntra has been successful: "Myntra, which was started in 2007, has lots and lots of sales and browsing data. Apart from its own platform, the company has access to customer data on Flipkart and Jabong. Together these three platforms control roughly 70% of all online fashion sales in India, according to Myntra estimates. Two, Myntra has the cash to invest in AI technologies, such as GPUs, and attract top engineers. Three, it has built expertise in the supply chain side of fashion and has close relationships with suppliers and manufacturers because of its large private label business, launched in 2012. Myntra is able to convince suppliers to shrink the manufacturing process from 180 days to less than 45 for its fast- fashion products. Many companies could achieve one or two aspects but few can combine all the three."
Reported Results
The company claims that sales of the algorithm-designed products are growing at 100%.
Technology
From the New York Times: "The first algorithm generated random images that it tried to pass off as clothing. The second had to distinguish between those images and clothes in Myntra’s inventory. Through a long game of one-upmanship, the first algorithm got better at producing images that resembled clothing, and the second got better at determining whether they were like — but not identical to — actual products."
Function
R And D
Product Development
Background
The online Indian clothing retailer Myntra decided to investigate the possibilities of automating the entire clothing design process, according to Live Mint: "If machines could recommend clothing attributes that customers currently favoured, shouldn’t they be able to combine those attributes into popular final designs?"
Benefits
Data
Customer sales and browsing data; product images