Iñaki García (Madrid, 1981) is the co-founder and CEO of uSizy, a company that in just 3 years has become a reference when it comes to offering solutions for fashion eCommerce to increase their sales and reduce their returns. And all thanks to the fact that it allows customers to accurately determine which is the most suitable size for them of a given garment.
To find out a little more about how uSizy works and what its future plans are, we talked to Iñaki.
uSizy was born as a very useful tool for online fashion stores. How do you remember the beginnings? How did the idea come about?
The idea arose in mid-2015 and during that year it was given shape: analysis of the technology, the market, possible viable solutions, business models, MPV, etc. uSizy was born in the middle of 2016 with a pilot already developed and on the market from day one. The founders have worked in consulting for large companies for many years and subsequently in the world. For this reason, we have always been sharing different ideas until uSizy convinced us.
It all started when I shared with my colleagues something that happened to me: when I went shopping for clothes one day, I bought two garments in different sizes from the same brand, in the same store and on the same day. I analyzed my different sizes in the different brands and I transferred this scenario to the online world. In this case, I would have bought the same size and would have generated one less sale and a few additional costs for eCommerce for the return of one of the garments.
We did not have much knowledge in fashion, patterns and clothing in general, therefore, we surround ourselves with industry experts, fashion, retail, etc., in order to understand the sector, production, the heart of an eCommerce, etc. and try to figure out why this problem had never been resolved and the stores were still with the ineffective size guides.
The start was more difficult than imagined considering that it was self-financing and because, although there was already a product developed and validated on the market with good results, they still did not believe that a system could hit the size of each user.
How does the guts of the size recommender work?
uSizy was born with a very clear idea: to present a very simple product and maximize sales conversions while there is a complete and innovative technology behind it. significantly reduce returns. In a few words, we manage to give the correct size through the use of machine learning applied to a business.
In other words, and in a very brief summary, if a garment, with users with similar measurements and a chosen size, is returned by 30% of the buyers and only 5% with another size, the system corrects towards the most successful size. The same happens with “unreturned” purchases that allow us to confirm a rule.
That is the conceptual base, at a deeper level a very advanced technology of statistics, regression, isomorphism, sampling validation, rejection rules, etc. is built.
And from there you spread your technology. What do you think was the main key that made you successful?
The good thing about uSizy is that it is a product that provides solutions for both the smallest SME and the largest multinational, both eCommerces with many brands or the online store of a clothing or footwear brand. Similarly, our technology allows us to serve distributors of a large number of brands with total satisfaction. In our birth we specialized in sports and now, we provide solutions both in fashion and sports and footwear.
Undoubtedly, the keys to our expansion are presence and references. When brands or eCommerce begin to see your technology in other sites and in the competition itself, they try it and you hit the mark. That’s when they look at their size guide and call us. Secondly, we have never lost any clients for our technology and service. This has always been the most important thing for us because in addition to a great product, there is a great team that establishes a partnership with our clients. They are our main supporters.
Our growth began in Spain but We are already world leaders in sport with presence in more than 15 different sports, in the best leagues and teams in the world.
How many stores in Spain currently use usizy as a size recommender?
We work for more than 100 eCommerce where 40% are from Spain and the rest are international. In Spain, for example, we work with companies such as tradeinn where we recommend the size in more than 300 brands, deporvillage with 100 marks, Futbol Emotion, Forum Sport, Retto, etc. In the case of fashion, we have clients of all kinds: men, women, children and clothing and footwear. Some examples are The Brubaker, Lolita Moda, Amichi, Boboli, etc.
And now the time has come to take another step in your evolution, launching uSizy Smart Business. What is it and what tools does it include?
Our size recommender is a great solution that solves a specific problem: size. And we do it by recommending sizes for users in more than 100 countries, 25 languages, more than 7 sizing systems, etc.
Although, when working with clients they were transmitting certain needs to us that they could not satisfy. For example, knowing the real demand. An online store does not know how many people are interested in a size L or does not know what the conversion rate of size M in a product is. On the other hand, imagine if a store instantly know the probability that a purchase will be returned due to a size error as it was purchased.
Therefore, we analyzed different points to work with clients and industry experts and launched uSizy Smart Business that includes different products for each need:
- uSizy Size Adviser, for the recommendation of size in clothes and footwear.
- uSizy Smart Stock, for the prediction of stock outages and their optimization.
- uSizy Smart Pricingfor the optimization of the price and sales margin by product and size.
- uSizy Smart Logisticsto optimize logistics and cost savings.
- uSizy Big Data, offers a complete analytics of demand and user behavior.
Based on our size recommender, our team of data scientists and engineers developed algorithms able to predict stockouts, profit margin points and returns, used by the rest of the tools (which can be contracted independently) to help online stores make decisions with a view to better management of inventory and logistics processes, as well as an optimal adjustment of prices .
To whom? What is the typical Usizy client like?
Our platform and the different products cover the needs of large, medium and small companies. We have clients that bill billions and clients that have just launched their startup.
Each store has its highest priority needs, one is size fundamentally, and then they make an effort to improve stock management or logistics, for example. Being able to have data to be able to offer pricing dynamic or make better decisions in terms of price, product and size is undoubtedly the most advanced solution in today’s world.
Why did you decide to take this step forward?
It is a very common step in any SaaS solution. A product is offered that satisfies the customer, but working with them, different needs arise and you have the technology and equipment to address them. Therefore, they are created new products always related to the core of your business: size.
After analyzing the problems, the solutions, their feasibility and how it also contributed to our business, we ended up launching uSizy Smart Business.
At what point are you in your development? Where do your plans go in the short/medium term?
The current point is to go perfecting the specific needs of each client. Each one requires information in a certain way, or a specific data, etc. Therefore, we work to offer in our the best information for each specific need. In the same way, adding parameters to the algorithms that allow the ratios to be improved more and more and, surely, include some other product that I cannot comment on.
Our plan for the future is to continue consolidating the expansion to new countries and for uSizy Smart Business to be a standard solution for any eCommerce.
Imagine that you could travel in time: What advice would you give to your Self in 2009?
It would be a great advantage to have the current knowledge being younger. Hands down, the biggest piece of advice I could give my 2009 self is: surround yourself with the best both professionally and personally.
Working in a startup or founding your own is not easy at all, and it gets even more complicated if you have bad professionals in management or by your side, or people you don’t trust, even who owe you money after 4 years. The good thing is that over the years and experiences you learn and know who to work with and who not to.
Let’s do a bit of futurology: what headline would you like to read in Marketing4eCommerce in a year?
The truth is that we are not very much into headlines but rather to fulfill internal objectives. But if I had to choose, I would love to read something like: “uSizy, the Spanish startup that measures up in half the world”
And a little more difficult: imagine that we jump forward in time: how do you imagine eCommerce in 2023?
Thanks to our position working with a multitude of eCommerce we can see that there are some that grow tremendously and other brands or eCommerce that disappear or are in bankruptcy proceedings regardless of size.
I believe that It’s time for brands to bet seriously on eCommerce because the ratios and the sentiment are saying that people want to buy online. Well, people really want to “be able” to buy more online, rather, because without knowing your size, it is very difficult. Buy with a click, have the product at home in 48 hours and, of course, if you have to pay back, you don’t have to do a gymkhana.
This does not mean that physical stores will disappear, but rather that a much more advanced omnichannel and making use of all the data that can be provided together that great user shopping experience (or brand image). A user will spend €2 more on a product if the product and the experience is consistent with the price you are asking for.
Quick Quiz:
- What is the first social network you open in the day? I’m not much of but it would be Linkedin
- iOS or Android? I work with a Mac but my mobile is Android. I think it is the best option today for each device.
- App or website? If the App has sufficient quality, app.
- In which eCommerce and how long ago did you make your last online purchase? Of course in one of our clients, 3 days ago in Tradeinn
- And it was? I can’t say, the Three Wise Men would be pissed off but I’m sure they’ll get the size right.
- Last book read? The name of the rose by Umberto Eco but this time in English. It’s a book…
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