The Yes Wants to Replace Personal Shoppers With AI

Fledgling e-comm app The Yes launched last Wednesday to remove the person from personal shopping. Let’s take a peek under its algorithmic hood.

Good on paper

The function: The Yes uses artificial intelligence to build personalized storefronts for users with products from over 150 participating brands.

• Once a user downloads The Yes, they answer a short style quiz. Then, the app taps the results to feed users shopping suggestions.
• Users react to those suggestions with “yes” or “no.” “Yes” adds items to a curated feed, “no” means you never see a polka-dot, one-shoulder top in the app again.
• When you hit purchase, The Yes processes the transaction on the brand’s behalf and takes a cut of the sale.

In theory, The Yes will get smarter every time users log on—and every shopper’s feed will look different.

The founders: Two people who know their way around an algorithm. The app’s helmed by Julie Bornstein, former COO of Stitch Fix, and Amit Aggarwal, alum of Google and Groupon.

The funding: $30 million Series A led by Forerunner Ventures. You may know it as a bankroller of Away, Glossier, and hims.

The features: The Yes lists the full digital catalogs for its current brand partners, spanning mall brands (Madewell), DTC (Everlane), and luxury (Gucci). Brands submit their own imagery for listings and fulfill their own orders—meaning they’re not ceding brand control to explore a new sales funnel.

🤨 in reality

The Yes may be the aioli of e-comm, but weaning shoppers off plain old mayo could be harder than execs think.

• Verishop, Net-a-Porter, and Shopbop already carry many of The Yes’s launch brands. The Yes is only available in an app; these retailers have browser-enabled shops, too.
• Facebook unveiled new storefront features for its suite of apps just before The Yes launched. With new tools in place, every Facebook and Instagram feed could become a personalized shopping destination.

Another wrinkle: Unless you’re hawking $15 self-cleaning sweatpants, new fashion products could be a tough sell in spring 2020. In April, brick and mortar clothing sales fell 89.3% from the year before, though online apparel sales rose 34% as retailers deployed Black Friday-like sales. That sends mixed messages for The Yes and its bet on fashion.