Are you ready for Drapers Digital Festival? The fashion bible’s annual digital summit takes place Wednesday 15 May and the great and good of the industry are adding the finishing touches to their big presentations.

Among the speakers will be Harrods Customer Insights Director David Boyle, who will be lifting the lid on the luxury department store’s ambitious digital transformation programme. He will be specifically discussing how Harrods is bringing digital insight to the realm of customer experience and what fashion can learn from diverse sectors including the media industry. As part of the store’s transformation programme it has been harnessing analytics to get under the skin of its fashion customers and drive decision making.

Also speaking about transformation and agility will be Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Richard Potter, who will be discussing how fashion retailers and brands can adapt to a world that ‘moves at the speed of digital’. He will explain why Microsoft believes agility, progressive culture and an entrepreneurial mindset are essential if businesses are to stay ahead of the game.

Fashion brands and retailers looking for industry-leading solutions will also hear from two market leaders in the field of data analytics and artificial intelligence: BounceX and True Fit.

Lars Rabe, Managing Director EMEA at True Fit, will show how data and AI can help consumers make the right personalised footwear and apparel decisions when it comes to style, fit and size before they buy. He will also be showing how the world’s leading retailers use True Fit’s extensive Fashion Genome and its AI platform to provide personally relevant intelligence about style, fit and size into every shopping experience in the customer journey.

BounceX’s General Manager for EMEA, Rob Massa, will be talking about how retailers and brands can create a seamless interaction between the physical and online using technology that is intuitive, easy to use and responsive. While most omnichannel retailers edge closer to this goal, Rob will explain what it takes to deliver a seamless, channel-agnostic customer experience. Rob will be in discussion with Matt Henton, Head of Ecommerce at Moss Bros, Rob Silsbury, Ecommerce Director at Dune Group, and Adrien Hiver, Omnichannel Director at Lacoste.

Innovative companies under the spotlight at the Drapers Disrupts Start-Up Lounge include:

• Personify XP, which will be showing off its AI-powered customer engagement platform, which creates content that can increase conversion rates three-fold. Machine learning algorithms to identify a customer’s mission from their behaviour onsite and then uses this behaviour to personalise their experiences in real-time.
• Hitachi, which will be showcasing its LiDAR customer-tracking solution, which can identify and analyse shoppers body movement to determine levels of intent.
• Narvar, which will be showcasing its ability to offer shoppers more choice and convenience by ‘extending beyond the buy button’.

Other start-ups showcasing their fashion retail solutions at the Drapers Digital Festival include Thread, a menswear fashion ecommerce company that offers a bespoke shopping service by combining AI with a personalised stylist service. The company was established six years ago and counts H&M Group among its clients.

Fashion retail social platform 21 Buttons will also be appearing at Drapers. The start-up has created a social network and fashion market place that allows influencers to share shoppable photos of their outfits. Items are tagged and directly linked to ecommerce stores, with affiliate partnerships allowing the influencer to take a commission on any sale made.

Depop, the niche app that has made it cool to sell second-hand clothing online will also have a presence. The app taps into the cyclical nature of the fashion cycle, mixing social platform and ecommerce as well as harnessing the growing strength of recycling and the cyclical economy.

For more information on the stellar line-up at Drapers Digital festival click here.