Revolutionising Digital Shopping with Depict AI
Alex Hamben, Product and Growth Manager at Depict AI, talks to Matt Lamb from Howard Kennedy about revolutionising the digital shopping experience, helping brands retain consumer loyalty, and the benefits of going through the Y Combinator programme. Initially founded as a product recommendation tool in 2019, Stockholm-based Depict AI pivoted to create custom storefronts in seconds, promising to boost product discovery by 25%. Already prominent in Scandinavia, its cutting-edge merchandising framework is already being used by fashion and lifestyle brands including Toteme, Sandqvist and Osprey London.
Let’s start with the big picture – what’s Depict AI all about? How did you set out to revolutionise e-commerce, and what’s been the journey so far?
At Depict, our mission is to empower any brand to build digital flagship discovery experiences. When we first started out five years ago, the focus was on providing smart product recommendations, which worked very well during the Covid e-commerce boom, when brands were willing to invest in growth at any cost. But after the Covid hangover hit, we realised that product recommendations solved a “nice-to-have” problem, so when it came to cutting costs, despite generating great ROI, we were cut. We then pivoted our focus towards product listing pages, such as category or collection pages, as they are truly a must-have for any brand to sell things online. We also narrowed our vertical focus to just fashion and lifestyle to be able to build a more focused product that solves our customers’ deeper needs. We wanted to build simple and effective tools that help brands to express themselves and tell their unique story online in an increasingly competitive environment. All in all, it’s been a very exciting journey full of ups and downs and learnings - and I’m really excited for what’s ahead.
Depict AI went through Y Combinator before raising its $17M series A. How did Y Combinator impact Depict AI and what advice would you give founders dreaming of getting onto Y Combinator?
A lot of the values and ideas that they teach are still deeply ingrained into our culture. Today, anyone can find their teachings on their YouTube channel, so I’d say what really makes the programme valuable is their brand value (in terms of getting access to investors and acquiring talent), and the network you gain access to through them. For anyone interested in joining, I recommend the same thing YC does – focus on talking to users and writing code, and have quick iteration cycles. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking or planning too much – the only reliable way to validate your idea is to put it in front of a user and see if they’d be willing to pay for it.
E-commerce technology is moving at breakneck speed. From your perspective, what’s the biggest gap in the market that Depict AI is solving?
There are still many gaps between e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar retail. For instance, returns, especially related to sizes or colour expectation mismatches, is still one of the biggest problems in the industry given that you can’t physically try the product before buying it – and I know tons of companies are trying creative approaches for bridging this gap. At Depict, the gap we’re focused on bridging is around the feeling, or the story conveyed by a brand when you walk into a physical store, vs. when you visit their website. Usually when you walk into a brand’s physical store it’s instantly recognisable, whether it’s from the way the products are merchandised, the smells, the lighting, the layout, or the decor. All these things tell a story around the brand – and people really love stories. Your story is what makes people buy your products. Recreating this experience online is really challenging – most brands struggle with it. Either because it’s too technically cumbersome or expensive to have an agency do it for you. That’s why so many e-commerce stores end up looking the same - and that’s what we’re looking to change.
Personalised shopping is the future, but many brands still struggle with it. What’s your approach to making personalisation seamless and meaningful, and how does your tech stand out?
We actually have a slightly different take when it comes to personalisation, and are actively not building our product in that direction at the moment. Don’t get me wrong – there’s definitely a case for personalisation - but we think it depends on the brand and the type of product. In the segment we serve, which primarily consists of D2C fashion, accessories, and lifestyle brands, we think you need to have a strong brand identity in order to stand out and attract loyal customers. This means that you as a brand need to be in control of what gets shown to your customers – i.e. the opposite of personalisation. And that’s precisely what we’re building tools for.
D2C brands are having their moment, but the competition is fierce. How is Depict AI helping these brands stand out, scale, and create lasting customer loyalty?
Our hypothesis is that the key to creating a lasting brand lies in crafting a compelling and relatable story around your brand, and depicting it effectively both physically and online. This requires creating original and inspiring content and brand assets and being able to leverage them effectively across different channels. We know a lot of brands, especially the creative led ones, have a lot of brand assets that they’ve invested in that they’ve got no good way of displaying. That’s where our product comes in. Being able to weave these assets into your collection pages, for instance, helps a lot. We’ve seen in some cases it increases conversion by a lot too. It’s about allowing websites to feature these videos and images in a more user-friendly way, that’s less clunky, and that keeps both creative directors and e-commerce managers happy.
Traditional merchandising doesn’t translate well online. What do you think about e-commerce merchandising, and how does Depict AI help brands make their product displays smarter, sharper, and more engaging?
We think the primary reason that the gap between traditional and e-commerce merchandising still exists is a lack of tools and flexibility in the platforms. That’s why most e-commerce stores still take the form of mail order catalogues. With Depict, we make it easy for any brand to merchandise their product listing pages with an intuitive UI and smart workflows, with the added capability of breaking free from the standard product grid format by interspersing brand assets and content throughout the page.
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