IT Voice:-Tell us about your company KiksAR and how does it work ?
Kavita Jha:-We are the only Virtual Try-On company with Styling and Fitment across categories of Fashion Retail.
Categories: Eyewear, Jewellery, Makeup, Accessories (masks, hijabs, turbans, scarves), Watches and Apparel. Shoes will be launched shortly.
Technology – AI driven complete marker-less Realtime experience across devices and platforms(ARCore / Non AR Core, ARKit / Non ARKit, windows, Browsers – Desktops / laptops / Mobiles -Android and iPhone)
Patented 3D Creation Platform using 2D images
Comprehensive Administration Terminal with complete SKU management and Analytics
Fitment and Styling advisory with auto-contour and size detection on face and body
IT Voice:-How is it helping people and businesses ?
Kavita Jha:-We believe in transforming the way how shopping is done today either online or at retail outlets using our Virtual Try-On technology.
We let them try Apparel, Eyewear, Jewellery, Shoe Watches, Makeup and other Accessories virtually to see themselves how they look in it and make a purchase decision.
Through our styling and advisory feature customer can make better purchasing decision which leads to fewer product returns and amazing customer experience, where we give recommendation to customers on what’s suits them vs what they like based on their face and body contours, skin tone, body tune, hair color etc. and what fits them with millimetre accuracy.
IT Voice:-How did this idea come up ?
Kavita Jha:-While I was working in Ramyam Labs, Bangalore Traffic affected me very badly. I used to spend 4-5 hours in travelling a day. This obviously affected my personal life. Due to paucity of time, I always used to land up doing online shopping for gifts and unplanned shopping, sometimes from my car. Many times, the products I purchased did not met my expectations resulting in returns which is more tiresome exercise. Either the picture that I saw on a model was different either in colour, texture, or quality and then it didn’t really suit or fit especially when I bought clothes for my daughters.
This made me think on how I can solve this problem of providing real life like shopping experiences online and realized that Virtual Try-On mapped with Styling and Fitment is the ultimate solution. This became the genesis of KiksAR’s Virtual Try-On Platform for Fashion Retail . I discussed this idea with Kiran and we did a 6 months research on the state-of-the-art with AI and AR technologies and decided to start KiksAR in 2018.
IT Voice:-Tell us about the founders?
Kavita Jha:-I have been working in Start-ups from the beginning of my career and I feel that is what I am made up for. I love the challenges and dynamicity of a start-up. In my last 2 start-ups I have been handling the Product development and hardcore technology enthusiast at heart. In my previous start-up Ramyam Labs, a big data analytics driver Customer Experience Management Company, I was Vice President- Engineering handling complete product portfolio. I was instrumental in getting Ramyam Labs acquired to a large German Conglomerate- Bertelsmann( Arvato CRM division).
My Co-founder Kiran who handles Sales and Marketing at KiksAR and myself have been working together for last 16 years and 3 start-ups together.
Kiran and myself have been working for last 16 years. He has been always managing the sales side and me the product aspect. Our combination has really helped in closing many deals and over the years we delivered products worth USD 30Mn+. We understand each other’s strength and weakness.
IT Voice:-Tell us about your services and product ?
Kavita Jha:-KiksAR is a virtual try-on company, creating Real life like Shopping Experiences for Fashion Retail in Apparel and Accessories using AI and AR.
Today we power Virtual Try-On for categories like Eyewear, jewellery, Watches and Apparel
It’s a simple three step process to on-board the customer. We create the digital 3D twin of the product from our customers using our patented 3D technology using 2D images.
Generate an AR tag and attach it across their inhouse and third-party digital commerce platforms with simple integration scripts.
For in-store experiences, we provide an SDK that can be installed on Android and IOS tabs and windows desktops.
We also have many firsts to our credit in this segment that includes
– Marker-less Watches Virtual Try-On
– Fitment and Measurements with millimetre accuracy
– 3D model generations from 2D images
– face masks and other accessories
– Instoretheme based experiences for eyewear, Jewellery and makeup
IT Voice:-What is the vision and USP of as compared to other players in the same domain?
Kavita Jha:-Create Real Life like Shopping Experiences & Advisory for Fashion Retail to global consumers. And to create world’s largest 3d catalogue cloud for “Try-On”
It’scompletely home-grown technology built from scratch to develop the world class platform what it is today, we differentiate our self in the market being the most innovative Virtual Try-On company with deeper solutions for each category and powerful feature set. Our major differentiator is styling and fitment which is lacking today in most of the fashion retail resulting in returns of billions of dollars.
IT Voice:-Businesses are facing a hard time in India, how much has it affected yourcompany?
Kavita Jha:-If the question is regarding the current pandemic situation, one of the worst hit industry is retail right after travel and leisure. Our Virtual Try-On solution is completely contactless for both instore and online shopping and we are happy to support lot of our customers continuing their business using our solutions during these tough times.
IT Voice:-What are your future plans ?
Kavita Jha:-Our plan is to create world’s largest 3d catalogue cloud for “Try-On” and become ubiquitous for Augmented reality experience for Fashion Retail. In the next 2 quarters, we are planning to launch Apparel both instore and online.
IT Voice:-What are the expected expansions?
Kavita Jha:-We are already a good presence in eyewear in Indian market. Also with apparel we are planning expand faster in India as well as in US market
IT Voice:-What is the company’s client base?
Kavita Jha:-Till date we have acquired 30+ online customers across 4 categories across the globe and our solution is present in 100+ stores
Our solution is used by some of the top notch brands in the country including Titan Eyeplus, Essilor – Coolwinks, Specsmakers, Vision Rx Labs, GKB, CKC Jewellers to name a few
