But then something interesting happened.
I realised I was facing the same problem that made me think about virtual try-on in the first place.
I had ordered a small amount of clothing stock for Strylez, but when it arrived, I wasn't completely convinced.
The products looked good online when I ordered them, but it was actually quite difficult to assess the true quality from the online store.
And once I had the products in my hands, I started noticing other problems.
Some of the products didn't really fit with New Zealand's changing seasons.
Some styles looked good in the supplier's photos, but I wasn't sure whether they were actually something New Zealand customers would want to wear.
And the biggest problem was:
I had no idea what customers actually wanted.
I was about to make the classic mistake of buying more stock based on my own assumptions.
And that made me stop and think.
This wasn't just a problem for customers.
It was also a problem for me as a new retailer.
Customers don't know whether they'll like the product until they see it on themselves.
And I don't know whether they'll like a product until they actually show interest in it.
So I started thinking:
What if I could test customer interest before investing heavily in inventory?
What if I could show people different styles, let them virtually try them on, and use their behaviour to understand what they're actually interested in?
That brought me back to the original idea behind Strylez.
Maybe virtual try-on wasn't just a way to help customers make better purchasing decisions.
It could also become a way for a small fashion business like mine to learn what customers want—before taking a big risk on inventory.
And that changed the way I started thinking about Strylez.