3DLOOK Thrives During Pandemic With Capital Raise And New Clients

Sizing continues to be a major pain point for consumers and a stumbling block for brands and retailers. From the frustrating lack of consistency across labels to maddeningly varied sizing charts – including vanity and international versions – to the difficulty of finding the right size and fit online, incorrect sizing can manifest itself as costly returns for retailers.

Technology firms such as 3DLook have made the proposition of helping consumers choose their proper size easier with mobile camera based solutions that provide personalized fit and size recommendations, and body data intelligence that can help brands create better-fitting clothes.

“The pandemic increased the need and urgency for our solutions for measurements,” said Vadim Rogovskiy cofounder and CEO of 3DLook. “We see this as a basis for our future growth because these clients are starting to provide us with positive case studies. More than 90% of our clients used our online solutions, so we have room to grow in-store solutions.”

As consumers shifted much of their spending toward e-commerce, 3DLOOK has seen significant recent growth, with revenue increasing 5.6 times since April 2020. 3DLOOK counts more than 100 customers worldwide, including uniform industry giants Safariland and Fechheimer Brothers, a Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B -0.9% company. Previous investors in 3DLOOK include Boost VC, 500 Startups, ICU Ventures, U Ventures, which is part of Horizon Capital, and supermodel Natalia Vodianova.

The technology uses a patented combination of computer vision and 3D statistical modeling to instantly measure the human body using two photos. One of the brands using 3DLook’s solutions, 1822 Denim, experienced a 30% decrease in return rates, while increasing conversions four times, year over year.

A leader in AI-first mobile body measuring, 3DLook caught the attention of Almaz Capital, which led a $6.5 million Series A funding round with participation from TMT Investments and Zubr Capital. The investment brings the company’s total fundraising to $11.2 million.

Rogovskiy said the capital will be used to expand the company’s leadership team in the U.S. and establish new R&D labs in the U.S. and Western Europe. “We have two R&D labs in the Ukraine and now that we have more resources, we’re hiring more people with experience in machine learning and power stacks,” he said.

Pasha Bogdanov, general partner of Almaz Capital, said, “3DLOOK not only offers an innovative solution that helps online retailers reduce returns and ensure higher client satisfaction, it also enables a unique personalized shopping experience. We’re excited to help 3DLOOK as it expands and meets the growing demand for its solutions. Last year we saw 3DLook transition from trial and experimental deployment to long-term contracts. People expect things to be catered to them. The key is that 3DLook has [the technology] without making it too burdensome for clients to use.”

Tailored Brands Inc., which operates  Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank, is among the retailers using 3DLOOK in 260 stores. “We enabled a fully contactless and safe way of measuring consumers by giving sales associates an app to use on their iPads. The app calculates measurements from two photos of a consumer, allowing associates to recommend items that would fit the customer well.”

“Even prior to the pandemic, we realized that we needed a simple and effective solution to offer a safe, seamless, and contactless experience for measuring our customers in-store,” said Chaitanya Pallapothula, senior vice president of omni-channel technology at Tailored Brands. “We rolled out 3DLook’s solution in 100 stores and quickly expanded as we saw great success and positive feedback both from store associates and customers. The solutions have also been rolled out in our newly launched Next-Gen stores, where in addition to these new technologies, we deliver an overall better customer experience via all of our omni-channel capabilities.”

Rogovskiy said 3DLook will use also the funds from the Series A round to continue to work on different try-on experiences. “We weren’t very active in that space last year because we focused on measurements,” he said. “We want to show consumers how a garment looks on them. We have several ideas and prototypes and have teams working on this. The primary use case would be for the home. It should definitely be omnichannel. As a consumer you’ll be able to create your 3DLook profile and store your profile online and use it in a store.”

Online retailer 1822 Denim, one of 3DLook’s early clients, features a video tutorial that promises to find your size in 60 seconds. “No more confusing size charts, tape measure, dressing room, and hassle of returns,” 1822 says on its home page. “Consumers are much more confident when buying denim after going through our widget and getting precise size recommendations,” Rogovskiy said.

The CEO said the market is moving toward setting scanning standards, and 3DLOOK is a member of the Mobile Body Scanning Standards developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

“It would mean brands could be confident that their apparel will be manufactured according to one standard,” Rogovskiy said. “There are some startups trying to work with supply chains. This will be a good year for some case studies and more conviction around this. We participated in the first official survey of leading body scanning vendors and 3DLook will be part of the official standards that will be released in coming months.”

3DLook is venturing beyond apparel to other products that can be personalized with body measurements such as made-to-measure furniture and customized automobile seats, which could fit the contours of your body and can be programmed to shift-shape to suit the different drivers in a family.

“This fundraising round will allow us to drive personalization across a wide range of industries. Our growth strategy includes extending into other segments, including better tracking of health and fitness progress in apps that show how peoples’ bodies evolve after they work out,” Rogovskiy said, adding that exercise equipment that measures body fat content could be enhanced with body shape data to monitor progress. 3DLook could also create personal avatars for video games.

Automobile seats are ripe for an upgrade, Rogovskiy said, adding that he’s gotten requests for insights into 3D body data that could make seats that would fit drivers better. “This will come on the high end, in fancy vehicles,” Bogdanov said. “You’ll have to pre-program that feature. You could have Bluetooth and when you sit down, the seat would be totally adjusted. I don’t think it’s near term, but it could be a growth vehicle.”

Another use case 3DLook plans to announce soon is a partnership “with a leading mattress retailer in Europe,” Rogovskiy said. “They’ll create fully customizable mattresses. There are a lot of applications we can build on top of sizing.”