David’s Bridal is using AI to say it’s not just about dress shopping

David’s Bridal wants to do more than just introduce brides to a wedding dress; it wants to help manage all the stress that comes with planning a wedding.

The legacy retailer known for its wedding gowns is using AI as a tool to help build the future of bridal retail for its core customer. During a panel on AI at eTail Boston, Elina Vilk, president and chief business officer of David’s Bridal, laid out the retailer’s plans and how it is rethinking the customer journey.

David’s Bridal has revamped Pearl AI, which has garnered 110,000 users in less than nine months with no marketing, Vilk said. The tool lets couples plan their wedding by connecting them to a range of vendors, from photographers to florists.

Enterprise side: The company is also building an AI tool for customers on the enterprise side, including photographers, nail salons, florists, and event planners, to connect them with couples.

“B2Bs are also now our customers, whereas the customer for 75 years has been just the bride,” Vilk said. “Now it’s the entire wedding ecosystem.”

Vendors, in turn, can unlock better recommendations, have access to better customer data, and serve customers more accurately using the company’s AI models.

Last year, David’s Bridal introduced the AI-powered Pearl Planner tool.

AI shopper loyalty: The retailer is taking data collected from Pearl to support in-store stylists with up-to-date information on preferences and wedding styles when customers walk into their stores.

“We’re actually seeing that those users that are on Pearl first convert better,” Vilk said. “They look more like our loyalty customers than they do our standard customers.”

“If you have a loyalty program, they’re converting much more like your top 10%–20% than they are the 80%,” she added. “We’re seeing a better completion rate, a better conversion rate in the store across the board. It’s all green flags.”

How it works: Pearl AI starts by asking couples questions and having them select AI-generated images to build a vision board for their wedding. From there, Pearl gathers 50+ data points—color preferences, dates, wedding style (beach wedding, etc.)—and maps out a complete, sequential 300-plus-step planning journey that’s easy to follow.

David’s Bridal trained Pearl AI on 75 years of customer data and insights from its stylists, or “dream makers,” who work directly with customers. This gives Pearl a deeper understanding of what couples actually want, beyond that which any standard AI could glean.

“Dream makers are filled with knowledge, and so by interviewing them, we understood that there’s so much more in her mind than what’s obvious on the sheet,” Vilk said.

“We had this opportunity to build a platform that addresses stress at every stage in [a customer’s] journey,” she added. “We built a really superpowered checklist that actually enables you to connect with vendors, enables you to transact, enables you to get everything you need in one place through a two-sided marketplace.”