Shopsense AI lets music fans buy dupes inspired by red-carpet looks at the VMAs

At the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) on Wednesday night, new technology allowed fans to shop their favorite artists' styles as they appeared on the screen.

Though the drama from last night's event focused on Chappell Roan confronting a rude paparazzi and Sabrina Carpenter's onstage kiss with an alien, fans were also raving about the extravagant and intricate outfits worn by the industry's most-loved singers.

Thanks to a partnership between Paramount and technology company Shopsense AI, viewers had the opportunity to purchase similar outfits from the service's suggestions.

Launched in January, Shopsense AI offers software that allows viewers to capture images of their preferred looks as they appear live on screen and then explore comparable options suggested by Shopsense's detection model. The "AI" in this case refers to a sort of computer vision technology that matches on-screen looks with a database of clothing from online retailers.

Currently, Shopsense recognizes more than 1 billion items from over 1,000 retailers, including AllSaints, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Urban Outfitters, Revolve, and more.

Viewers can go to shop.mtvvmas.com/vmas and upload a photo of their favorite look from the VMAs or any outfit of their choosing using their phone camera. For Roan’s medieval warrior-inspired outfit, the software recommends a $500 AllSaints maxi dress or the more affordable $56 Boohoo milkmaid dress. It's worth noting that Roan's outfit comes from the Y/Project Fall 2024 collection, which is quite expensive, which makes having an affordable alternative a nice option.

The online storefront doesn't have a built-in checkout feature. Instead, it uses direct links for each product, which allows brands to keep traffic on their respective platforms.

Shopsense’s technology still has some issues to resolve, we found.

During our testing, the suggestions were black dresses instead of the actual deep merlot color. There were also some outliers that didn't seem to match, such as a metallic dress that Shopsense may have pulled from Roan’s acrylic nails, which resembled metal armor. However, the company points out that some items are meant to only match the "aesthetic" of the initial look.

“We continue to develop the technology,” Bryan Quinn, president and co-founder, who previously worked at Amazon for over a decade, told TechCrunch. “Some of it has to do with frame rates on TVs, and how images kind of come through, how zoomed in somebody is…In terms of the accuracy of the technology, we benchmarked ourselves against the best [AI models].”

Launched earlier this year, Shopsense AI aims to compete with major media companies that have introduced similar shopping technology to drive revenue. Disney recently announced its new shoppable ad format, “Gateway Shop,” that enables viewers to buy items without interrupting their viewing experience. Peacock’s “Must Shop TV” ads identify shoppable products in content and display a QR code on the TV screen for viewers to purchase the items.

Quinn claims that Shopsense’s AI model is more cost-effective than other tools. “We can do it for a fraction of the cost,” he said.

Paramount announced it would be teaming up with Shopsense AI at its annual Upfronts presentation in April. The company first showed off the tech at the CMT Music Awards red carpet event. In the coming months, Paramount is implementing the technology in more of its shows.

“We're going to roll it out to a number of different pieces of content across the Paramount portfolio, and so everything from live sports to scripted content to daily shows to reality shows. We see this as something that can make all Paramount content shoppable,” Quinn added.

Additionally, the shoppable technology will not only be limited to apparel.

“It's not all about the drip,” Glenn Fishback, CEO and co-founder, told us. “It's for travel locations, it's for sporting equipment, it's for hats…the ultimate goal was always to have the ability to curate items in advance that are thematically aligned with the content.” Fishback is a veteran in the e-commerce space, having sold his startup Toplooks to Klarna for $133 million in 2021.

Regarding its business model, the company earns a portion of the advertising and commerce revenue from the storefront. For example, MTV's online store featured a collection sponsored by Macy's.

Quinn explained that “most of the commerce revenue is done on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis,” so when a customer clicks to go to a retailer's store, Shopsense AI earns a share of that click. The other revenue model is based on a share of the purchase volume. So if someone buys something for $100, Shopsense AI shares a portion of that revenue with the broadcaster.

The company said it previously raised $2.2 million at a $20 million post-money valuation cap.