Dive Brief:
- Bath & Body Works is gearing up to launch a generative AI-powered fragrance finder called Gingham Genius later this year, according to the retailer’s earnings call last week.
- “Our technology roadmap is on track and we're putting in place the foundational tools and systems needed to support future growth while enabling new capabilities that will increase customer engagement and provide a more seamless shopping experience across channels,” CEO Gina Boswell said during the call.
- The fragrance finder features a conversational interface where customers can describe a scent or candle and the tool will provide personalized recommendations. Boswell said the combination of large language models and its data can help increase customer traffic and sales over time.
Dive Insight:
Bath & Body Works’ upcoming generative AI rollout comes after a push toward improving the company’s foundational technology capabilities.
As the company separated from Victoria's Secret in 2021, it also needed to stand up independent IT capabilities, a top priority of its 2023 strategy that was largely completed during the summer of that year.
To support future growth and expand its technology portfolio, the company added Chief Digital and Technology Officer Thilina Gunasinghe, who hit the ground running when he joined the retailer in April of last year, according to Boswell.
“As we roll off establishing the standalone capabilities, we'll then be investing strategically to drive future growth,” Boswell said during the company’s Q1 2023 earnings call in May 2023. “We're busy putting that roadmap together … he's only been here for one month, but we have been wasting no time getting to it.”
Bath & Body Works in June tapped Accenture to assist in modernizing its core digital and technology platforms. The agreement is part of the retailer’s strategy to leverage technology, like generative AI, to drive growth.
“We are focused on leveraging our core strengths in fragrance and augmenting these with cutting-edge technology and AI experiences such as native mobile, headless commerce, MarTech and transformer-based neural networks to deliver hyper-relevant and immersive experiences to customers with greater precision,” Gunasinghe said in a statement.
Accenture also assisted with developing the generative AI fragrance finder.
