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Business of Fashion
12-05-2025
- Business
- Business of Fashion
How to Responsibly Integrate Generative AI into the E-Commerce Value Chain
BoF's latest white paper, The Future of E-Commerce, Powered by Generative AI — in partnership with Zalando — explores how business leaders can effectively integrate generative AI (gen AI) into their workplace, to both increase consumer engagement and streamline employee workloads. Gen AI and other next-generation technologies have the potential to automate workplace activities that take up 60 to 70 percent of employees' time, according to estimates from management consultancy McKinsey & Company. However, when implementing new systems and tools, businesses and their leaders must navigate a range of challenges, from a workforce potentially reluctant to adopt the technology to the rapidly evolving regulations and ethics surrounding this developing space. 'Gen AI is a great tool and advancement for our industry,' says Tian Su, vice president of personalisation and recommendation at Zalando. 'However, it needs to be used purposefully, respectfully and responsibly.' Within this paper, BoF explores the critical preliminary work required to prepare the workplace and employees for this new technology. It also examines what retailers must consider from a legal and ethical perspective, to implement the technology in a responsible and safe way. Download the white paper: The Future of E-Commerce, Powered by Generative AI Building the Right Foundations for Gen AI Before retailers look to implement gen AI tools and solutions across the e-commerce value chain, organisations and their leaders must first carefully evaluate how and where to integrate such tools. Business leaders must ensure the workplace and employee base are ready to embrace what will drive substantial organisational change. For example, it is critical that employers do not assume that their workforce fully understands what gen AI is, its distinction from predictive AI, the tools available to use, and how it adds value to workflows and systems. 'It is the responsibility of the executives to not only properly educate themselves on fashion technology and how it can be used, but to trickle down that education to their employees,' says Jessica Couch, a retail tech expert and founder of an AI-powered peer-to-peer shopping platform. Within this section of the paper, BoF explores the preliminary work e-commerce businesses need to undergo to introduce gen AI, including how they should: Inform and engage employees on the gen AI opportunity Ensure leadership buy-in and employee engagement Identify the key pain points to solve Balance employee and consumer needs An example of Zalando's personalised content display with the Zalando Fashion Assistant. (Zalando) Understanding the Business Ethics and Responsibility The speed at which gen AI is developing has prompted widespread concern around how to effectively regulate ever-evolving technologies. A 2024 Reuters Institute survey of 12,200+ individuals across the UK, US, Argentina, Denmark, France and Japan found that, while almost 50 percent of respondents believe gen AI will have a large impact on retail, nearly 25 percent of them do not trust retailers to use the technology responsibly. 'This is a business that's about trust and if you get this wrong because you get your AI wrong, then you have a negative impact and you lose your customers, you lose your partners,' says Jan Wittrodt, director of privacy, AI and technology law at Zalando. Within this section of the paper, BoF explores ethical and responsible ways in which gen AI should be embedded into an e-commerce business. For example, retailers should: Keep a human in the loop Be transparent to build trust Mitigate bias by human and data-led diversification strategies Ask the right questions — internally and externally Read the full white paper: The Future of E-Commerce, Powered by Generative AI In this white paper, BoF also explores gen AI use cases from Zalando on leveraging large-language-models (LLMs) to enhance the customer experience with virtual assistants and chatbots — and how image-generating tools can also provide businesses with new means to maximise creative output and content displays. This is a sponsored feature paid for by Zalando as part of a BoF partnership.
Business of Fashion
05-05-2025
- Business
- Business of Fashion
Enhancing the E-Commerce Customer Journey with Generative AI
The latest white paper from BoF, The Future of E-Commerce, Powered by Generative AI — in partnership with Zalando — explores how e-commerce organisations can successfully implement generative AI (gen AI) to maximise consumer engagement and increase creative output. With 60 percent of US consumers surveyed by Google saying online purchasing decisions require more effort than before, online retailers are turning to next-generation technologies to create a more engaging shopping experience. 'In traditional e-commerce, it can be very hard for a customer to even figure out where to start,' says Tian Su, vice president of personalisation and recommendation at Zalando. 'This is something people have been trying to solve for a long time: how to make a smooth, seamless experience in which customers really enjoy the process of discovery." Gen AI can enhance product recommendations — through hyper-personalisation and optimising the search functionality — and simplify the path to product discoverability, particularly when a customer is in need of inspiration regarding their purchasing decisions. In this paper, which offers gen AI use cases from Zalando, BoF explores how to leverage word-based large-language-model (LLM) technologies, such as ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, to heighten the customer experience. It also unpacks how image-generating start-ups such as Midjourney, Llama, Dall-E and Stability AI can provide businesses with new means to enhance creative output and content displays. Download the white paper, The Future of E-Commerce, Powered by Generative AI . New iterations of chatbots improve ROI for brands and retailers by reducing the time spent for customers to find what they are looking for. (Zalando) Evolving the Customer Experience and Product Discovery Fifty percent of fashion executives surveyed for The Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Co.'s The State of Fashion 2025 report identified the gen AI use case with the most potential in 2025 to be product discovery and customer search. For Jessica Couch, retail tech expert and founder at the opportunity lies in making the experience feel more human. 'The less they feel like it is a chatbot and the more it feels like a conversation and the more [the consumer is] getting the information that they need, […] the more blissful it is.' 'This is why we have launched our conversational interface, Zalando Assistant, which engages customers in a natural way in order to guide them — even when they're unsure of what they're looking for — to find exactly what they need on Zalando,' says Su. In this section of the white paper, BoF explores how businesses can leverage gen AI to enhance consumer engagement in an online shopping experience. This section looks at: Translating relevant data into hyper-personalisation Sparking consumers' imagination Enhancing the search bar functionality Deploying conversational chatbots and virtual assistants Optimising size-and-fit technology Enhancing Creative Output and Content Displays Gen AI is already proving a popular tool for amplifying marketing and creative output. Through the use of gen AI-powered text and image generating software, traditional obstacles are no longer barriers to creations or campaigns. Zalando, for example, is leveraging gen AI in content creation to shorten production timelines and reduce costs, as well as creating more dynamic and relevant backdrops for product shots or onsite teaser campaigns. It allows the team to jump on microtrends that emerge at short notice, enabling content production up to 80 percent faster than conventional content production methods. Oneline retailers can implement gen AI to transform creative processes and enhance the customer experience by: Creating consumer-led product descriptions Extending use cases of product imagery Capturing and visualising emerging trends with gen AI Accounting for gen AI acclimatisation Read the full white paper, The Future of E-Commerce, Powered by Generative AI . In this white paper, BoF also explores the preparatory work that businesses should undertake before introducing new technologies like gen AI and what retailers must consider from a legal and ethical perspective, to implement the technology in a responsible and safe way. This is a sponsored feature paid for by Zalando as part of a BoF partnership.
