Wishi, the AI-powered personalized e-commerce platform, has announced a strategic partnership with Amazon Fashion to make Amazon Luxury items available to its stylists and customers on their shoppable style boards and product feeds.
The deal will give Wishi access to premium and high-end brands including Rolex, Chanel, Christopher Esber, Coach and more.
Wishi was cofounded in 2019 by tech entrepreneur Clea O’Hana and Hollywood stylist Karla Welch to connect style experts with customers to help them navigate brands. The platform, which has just under 40 employees, works with 1,000 stylists, including Kendall Jenner’s stylist Dani Michelle, and past guest stylists Law Roach and Elizabeth Stewart.
The Amazon deal represents Wishi’s growing business-to-business function, building on its 300 partner brands, a number growing by 33 percent month-over-month, including Fashionphile, Jenni Kayne, Moda Operandi, Luisa Via Roma, Canada Goose, Zadig & Voltaire, Another Tomorrow and more.
“Our technology and our service is so impactful for a retailer for survival,” said Welch. “If Amazon, the world’s biggest retailer, is coming to Wishi to say, wait a minute, plug us in, then we’re doing something right,” she added, touting Wishi as a discovery channel for retail during a challenging time.
“We have gathered so much data in the last few years that our recommendation model has become better and better, it’s the product attributes but also all the clients’ attributes,” said O’Hara, noting that the platform has a 37 percent click-through rate from its feed and a 74 percent rate from one-to-one styling, with a sales conversion rate of approximately 26 percent for users who complete the quiz process.
“What we want to get to is being the most personalized e-commerce tool or platform where you’re pairing people with inventory. That’s why these brands are reaching out to license our software or have us recommending their products,” she said. (Amazon Fashion did not respond to a request for comment.)
“The user is facing millions of products every day…and people are overwhelmed by recommendations. But how do you get to trust the recommendation? It has to be validated by a stylist that you trust…and our stylists are not making commission on what they’re recommending. They can recommend a $34,000 bag, and they can recommend a Gap T-shirt,” said Welch. (Wishi stylists earn a percentage of styling fees — which can range from $60 to $550 — for each session.)
While Wishi would not share the number of its user or subscriber base, the platform has delivered more than 2.2 million style recommendations, “reflecting the scale of engagement and activity,” O’Hana said.
Wishi is part of a growing number of apps and tech platforms built around personalized shopping, styling and reselling, from StitchFix and Indyx to more luxury-leaning offerings.
Cofounded earlier this year by Net-a-porter vets Lupe Puerta and investor Carmen Busquets, The Floorr bills itself as the first global engine for personal shopping entrepreneurs to better serve the industry and end customers, with access to inventory from Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Saks, Browns, SSense, Net-a-porter, Chloé and Ferragamo among others.
AI-driven shopping app, digital closet and styling platform Vêtir was also launched in 2024, by industry vet Kate Davidson Hudson.
Vêtir allows users to upload the contents of their closets to the app, and then invite their favorite stylists and store associates to send personalized shopping recommendations and outfits, even adding them to a personal calendar or packing list.