Even Without Trying Them On, Perfect Fit for My Feet... 'PearlFit' Claims Zero Shoe Return Rate [AI Revolution](131)

Providing Shoe Size Recommendation Solution as SaaS
Secured Clients Including ABC Mart and Prospex
Record Q3 Sales This Year... Full-Scale Entry into US Market Next Year
Targeting Luxury Market with AR-Integrated Virtual Fitting Technology

"Is that possible? It would be amazing if it is." This was the most frequently asked question to Lee Seonyong, CEO of Perfit, a shoe size recommendation solution. He was referring to the chronic problem of size recommendation in the 400 trillion won shoe distribution market. Not only does every person have a different foot shape, but even for the same 240mm size, detailed measurements vary by manufacturer, resulting in a high return rate. About 30% of production is returned and discarded. CEO Lee persistently tackled this issue. Leveraging his experience founding a women's shoe shopping mall in 2016, he challenged himself with a service that recommends only the "perfectly fitting shoes."

It was not an easy task. After founding Perfit in 2018, it took two years solely for technology development. First, a technology to measure users' feet was needed. When a foot is photographed with a smartphone, artificial intelligence (AI) recognizes the foot outline, and computer vision measures length, width, ratio, and shape within an error margin of 1.4mm. They also developed a device to measure shoe sizes directly. The device measures internal length, width, instep height, and other dimensions, and data such as weight, material, and comfort are also digitized. Finally, by training on these two data sets, an AI recommendation algorithm was implemented to suggest the optimal product.

Lee Seonyong, CEO of Perfit. Provided by Perfit

Even with the technology, collecting data was another challenge. This is why they started operating a shoe recommendation app in 2020. Without a special revenue model, they focused solely on gathering foot size data. Wherever people wore sneakers?flea markets, marathon events?they went to measure feet and ask about comfort. CEO Lee said, "Collecting foot data is what you call 'nogada' (hard labor), an area big corporations cannot handle," and added, "Especially securing a lot of subjective data like comfort is Perfit's competitive edge."

When shoes were recommended using the data collected this way, users responded positively. The return rate dropped by half, and repurchase rates nearly doubled. CEO Lee immediately targeted the business-to-business (B2B) market. To focus and concentrate, they closed the mobile app and provided the size measurement solution to companies as Software as a Service (SaaS). They secured clients including shoe brands like Prospecs, NEPA, Columbia Korea, and distributors such as ABC Mart and Kolon Mall. With a revenue model established through SaaS, they achieved their highest sales in the third quarter of this year.

Having confirmed the potential, Perfit plans to expand overseas. The priority is the United States. The market itself is large, and a sports shoe market where fit is important?such as track shoes and cycling shoes?is established. CEO Lee said, "After meeting with Nike, Adidas, and others, they showed interest in Perfit," and added, "We plan to start testing next year to build references overseas."

They will also advance their recommendation technology. The goal is to create an "online salesperson" that recommends shoes conversationally like ChatGPT. Customers of sports shoes, for whom perfect size and functionality are important, tend to ask specific questions, so CEO Lee believes there is a good chance of success. On the other hand, they plan to target the luxury market with a solution that combines augmented reality (AR) technology to virtually fit shoes by size. The target is high-end brands where customers hesitate even to enter the store but want to try on shoes.

Ultimately, the goal is to reduce shoe return rates and customers hesitating to purchase due to size issues to "zero." This would reduce inventory caused by returns, and leftover sizes could be sold targeting customers whose feet fit those exact products. CEO Lee emphasized, "We want to realize '3-zero' by reducing inventory to zero as well," and said, "We will innovate everything from shoe manufacturing to marketing."