2017 ended with some great news. We at Unbxd, recently took part in the Amazon AI Conclave. And we won! For the uninitiated, Amazon AI Conclave is a two-day event conducted by Amazon to showcase the increasing importance of AI among emerging startups. The event focuses on knowledge sharing and culminates with an award function to recognise pathbreaking innovations in AI. B2B and B2C companies offering AI-based solutions that leverage any of Amazon’s AWS services were open to apply for the awards. We made it to the shortlist in our…

Karl Lagerfeld’s tech-inspired collection took the fashion world by storm in Paris Fashion Week last year. Chanel’s creative director transformed the runway into cyberspace and showcased fashion’s way of acknowledging the role played by technology in the world of fashion. Fashion-tech, as industry pundits call it, has not just begun. Fashion has embraced almost every tech trend — be it wearable tech, social media and influencer marketing, or even VR and augmented reality. Fashion is constantly evolving and so are the technological trends that aid trade in this ephemeral industry. The impact…

The story of how it all began at Unbxd, in Pavan’s words.  I’ve taken a decision to begin writing at an exciting time at Unbxd. We are growing really fast and have a great opportunity to solve some of the hardest problems software can solve. And, to solve them well. Today, Unbxd has grown its product portfolio to solve product discovery — every onsite interaction that visitors engage in to find products. We power all of them — search, browse, recommend on multiple devices. Our engine determines the most relevant set of products to…

That time of year — the one about long flights back home, Thanksgiving TV marathons, and stuffed turkey with pumpkin pie, came to a close last weekend. The online boom has added a new dimension to the holiday season as brands and shoppers wait for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales with equal gusto. In fact, research by Deloitte revealed 91% of shoppers planned to shop online during the holiday weekend. We analysed millions of customer visits — across fashion and lifestyle, beauty, and home decor — to understand the…

Machine learning, AI, Deep Learning are trending buzzwords now. Especially with Site Search and Online Commerce. But, how do you tell that you need machine learning? How do you know that a particular solution has machine learning? Though the terms automation and machine learning are used interchangeably, the biggest difference between the two is that automation does not require any learning. Automation is all about using machines to automate what humans would otherwise do manually. For instance in E-commerce Site-Search, a good automation based solution will use past purchase information to…

61% of the 2.4 billion smartphone users on the planet reach for their mobile phones within five minutes of waking up.  Our latest report on mobile product discovery — based on 2 billion eCommerce interactions on our platform — revealed some interesting insights on how technology has impacted shopper purchasing behaviour on mobile. Here’s our take on what the data showed us. Fashion Already Winning on Mobile In early 2016, uber-luxury brand Burberry announced that more than half their eCommerce purchases happened on mobile. In fact, over the last five…

Imagine the most efficient salesperson at your favorite store and how well they predict just what you would like to buy. Now imagine the same efficient salesperson, except it’s not just you she knows about — she knows about thousands like you and helps each of those yous with just as much precision. That’s an exceptionally watered down, oversimplified version of what personalization and AI mean to the ecommerce world. And if you’re competing with the Amazons of the world, that clever algorithm is your best friend. It isn’t good…

How relevant is Black Friday in a world where great deals come by almost all year round, drones deliver purchases at your doorstep, and social media is the primary medium influencing purchase decisions? That’s a loaded question to answer when you’re on the verge of yet another holiday shopping season. A recent survey by Accenture revealed majority of consumers in the US plan to do their holiday shopping online. Cyber Monday has officially overtaken Black Friday as the most anticipated holiday sales day in the US. We bring you the…

“What is the future of retail?” As an oft-repeated question that has had its share of the spotlight in retail conferences and boardroom discussions across the globe, posing this question here could seem a bit been there done that. We’re not strangers to the image of e-commerce monsters gobbling up traditional brick-and-mortar stores. eMarketer states that e-commerce sales will increase at four times the rate of retail sales this year bringing the yearly estimate to 23.2% for 2017. That is a disturbing statistic if you’re at the retail end of…

The retail transformation story is a phrase we’ve heard for a while now. But, what’s really changing? The latest instalment of Shop.org, the e-tail event of the year, kickstarted in Los Angeles, earlier today. This year the event — that attracts the who’s who of e-commerce — focuses on AI and machine learning, women in retail tech, consumer-first marketing, and a lot more. Quoting NRF’s Senior Vice President for Retail Strategy, Cristina Ceresoli, “Our goal is that they (conference attendees) walk away inspired and informed, taking with them practical skills…