EDITD snags $1.6M for fashion analysis

The company automates consumer buying habits for the fashion industry and gets support from Index

I bet being a major fashion brand is harder than it looks, since you have to somehow predict what styles and fashions consumers are going to buy. Who knew that skinny jeans would make a comeback? Or high-waist jeans, for that matter… (Note: if you’re reading this, chances are, you don’t have the body type to pull off high-waist jeans. Know how I know this? Because you’re on a computer instead of a treadmill.)

One London-based company, EDITD, has developed a platform that automates the process of figuring out what types of fashions people will buy, and on Monday evening, the company announced its $1.6 million round of seed funding led by Index Ventures, with help from Alex Zubillaga, Atlas Venture, High Line Venture Partners, Sylvie Gabriel, and Joanne Wilson.

Founded in 2009 in London, EDITD offers a new automated solution to the old manual process of hiring consulting firms to provide analysis and insights into consumer buying habits, trends, and key competitors. EDITD mines data from the Web, scouring tweets, Facebook, blog posts, and the Internet in general to see what people are buying, talking about, and trashing. Brands can then harness this information and use it to place orders, gauge pricing, and move stock.

But the company may not be working in favor of the cheapskate consumer. Half of all clothing purchases in the U.S. are for discounted items, which is both “devastating to companies’ profits, and shows that what the industry is producing does not match what consumers want to buy,” according to EDITD. (I would beg to differ. It’s more likely consumers do want to buy what the industry is producing—they just want to wait until it’s marked down.)

To help bridge this gap, EDITD provides data on more than two million products and 300,000 buyers’ opinions every day.

“EDITD’s approach to fashion forecasting is unique; they have a real-time view of the fashion retail market alongside a comprehensive fashion information service,” said Robin Klein of Index Ventures, in a statement. “By analyzing large amounts of data, much of it directly, from e-tailers and comments in social media, they can provide unique insights that save their clients large sums and increase their sales by directing their strategy around items which are most wanted.”

Klein will be joining the company’s board of directors.

EDITD works with brands and retailers from the UK, USA, South Africa, Europe, and South America. The new capital will be used to increase the amount of data being analyzed, delve into new markets, and expand the team globally.