Perfect Fit
My Virtual Model creates a network for custom shopping women who have their own virtual-fit models on www.landsend.com or www.jcpenney.com will soon have an additional convenience: The models, in enhanced 3-D, can be used on other apparel sites in an online network.
It’s the latest advance in one-to-one marketing from My Virtual Model, Inc., the Montreal company founded by Louise Guay. In addition to Lands’ End and J.C. Penney, the network will include long-time Guay clients like Les Galleries Lafayette, and the Les Ailes de la Mode division of Canada-based San Francisco Group.
Shoppers are already able to create virtual models – an online “mini-me” – on several sites. But now they will be able to use the same personalized model, based on measurements and other data they submit, across several sites.
That’s not all. To make it easier, they can also create their model on a new site being launched by My Virtual Model (www.myvirtualmodel.com). And the sites will share customer profiles and data so that the stores can send targeted e-mails to an e-mailbox created by each model at the Web site. Customers can select what types of e-mail they would like to receive.
The question is: Will consumers see this as too much too fast? There is little question that personal model technology is growing in popularity; it is also being offered by firms like 3Dshopping.com, in Marina Del Rey, CA, and Fry Multimedia, in New York.
One group that finds the models especially appealing is larger-size women, who have trouble finding their sizes in stores or are too embarrassed to ask. Some have written to say, “Finally, a site that realizes that we larger women have a sense of style also,” notes Guay.
Women can also try lingerie on their models in the privacy of their own homes. “Many men told us, `I would like to create a virtual model of my girlfriend and send it by e-mail because she never dares to wear what I like,'” Guay says.
How does it work?
The virtual model allows shoppers to try the clothes in different sizes, styles and colors, and even turn a full circle. It also shows them how the pleats fall. But first women have to supply information, including body proportions (with or without exact measurements), skin tone and hair color.
“I am meant to be your reflection,” the model tells them. “If you lie to me, I will lie to you.”
Guay’s firm (formerly known as Public Technologies Multimedia Inc.) also works with Disney and has virtual models in a CD-ROM game for young girls.
“To dress up is so natural for them,” Guay says. “We combine entertainment and retail. They can co-design their Princess dress.”
My Virtual Model will soon make use of a new generation of animated customer service agents – or models – able to walk around Web sites, talk and make product recommendations to online shoppers. Customers with digital cameras can add their faces to the models.
Participating merchants will pay based on the average shopping basket size or on a performance-based fee structure.
Data volunteered by consumers is hosted by secure third-party servers and remains the property of the consumers, Guay says. “The model is like a virtual representation of a woman, as a personal diary would be, and you would not want to make use of that information without permission.”
The data generated by the models representing a specific company flows into that affiliated retailer’s databases.
One issue that is yet to be resolved concerns the access and use of data generated through clickstream analysis because consumers will be able to e-mail their models to try on clothing electronically at different Web sites.
louise Guay, the founder My Virtual Model Inc., has more going for her than a charming accent – she also has good timing.
Determined to write and act for a living, the French-Canadian, who had studied at Yale Drama School, put on a stage production in Montreal at her own expense. It was on the history of writing, from the antique scroll to the computer.
The audience hated it. But one person liked it, and said, “I am the director of a research center in the South of France. You should come.”
Louise went, and soon ended up as an Internet expert. She used her fellowship time to create the world’s first virtual art museum, in which 4,000 masterpieces from France, Italy and Canada are stored. She also earned her Ph.D.
Later, she ran her own advertising agency. One day, during an online presentation, she heard the comment that all agency executives would like to hear. As she tells it, a client who ran an upscale department store, said, “I cannot see my customers going online – it’s so far from the real-life experience. Louise, you are sensitive to fashion. Come to me with an idea. I will buy it in advance.”
The result was My Virtual Model.
