Retailgentic | Consumer Behavior & Retail Trend

Scot Wingo | Retail Trends Analyst

The Missing Link Is Shopper Context: eComID CEO Oscar Rundqvist; Plus eComIDโ€™s Big Funding Announcement ๐Ÿ“ฃ

OCT 22, 202643 MIN

Description

This week is a product deep dive with a fresh funding story attached. eComID just closed Europeโ€™s largest fashion tech seed round, and the company is building something agentic commerce needs: shopper context that belongs to the shopper and goes wherever they shop. The ID was born inside H&M, it already runs on about 70 brand sites, and itโ€™s now headed for the US. Highlightsย  ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ $๐Ÿญ๐Ÿณ.๐Ÿฐ๐—  ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ: Europe's largest fashion tech seed round. Oscar says it's the second-biggest in the world, led by London's Systemiq Capital, and Nordic sports retailer Stadium (one of eComID's biggest customers) joined as a strategic investor. Scot rang the gong ๐Ÿ”” ๐—•๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐—›&๐— : Oscar pitched eComID internally in a Dragon's Denโ€“style process and H&M's startup arm invested from day one. ๐—” ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—น๐—น๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ฟ: Models are very capable, catalogs are open to agents and payments are getting solved. But without shopper context, AI "still starts from zero." It doesn't know your size, your taste or what you sent back. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜: One source of truth for your size, taste and preferences, tied to your email. It goes with you across eComID brands like H&M, Bjรถrn Borg, Peak Performance and Haglรถfs. "We want to democratize personalization." ๐Ÿต๐Ÿญ% ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜† ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฒ๐˜€: 91% of shoppers buy different sizes from different brands. Oscar says that shows how broken sizing is. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป: About 70 merchants, about 20 million shoppers reached each month, and 15% of users already in the US. Shoppers who use eComID have about 30% lower return rates and about 10% higher conversion. +๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฒ% ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—ฒ ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฟ: In a head-to-head test, eComID's AI search beat traditional on-site search by 26% on revenue per visitor. ๐—ž๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐—ฎ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ด๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜‚๐—ฒ: "Average order value is a completely useless metric." What matters is average kept order value, because each handled return costs brands $21โ€“46. ๐—ง๐—ฟ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐˜‚๐—ฐ๐˜: If an agent spends $1,000 for you, you need to know whose agent it is, what you authorized, what context it used and what happens if something goes wrong. Oscar argues Europe's GDPR-first approach suits agentic commerce. ๐—ฆ๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜„ ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ฟ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ป ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ: 92% of shoppers want to see their own return rate, and 75% say seeing it makes them want to return less. The live demo on Houdini Sportswear shows the search, sizing and nudge modules working together. Timestamps: 00:35 Welcome to Retailgentic 01:50 Announcement: Kiri Masters launches Adgentic 05:00 Welcome Oscar Rundqvist, CEO & founder of eComID 05:25 Big news: $17.4M, Europe's largest fashion tech seed round 06:15 Oscar's background at H&M 07:35 Lessons from H&M: why personalization never worked 08:55 Pitching eComID inside H&M's startup studio 09:40 Why we need eComID: AI without context starts from zero 10:55 The shopping passport: portable shopper context 13:20 Building the consumer side through brand modules 14:45 How the ID works across brands 16:30 Shopper control and a visible shopping algorithm 18:05 Beyond sizing: capturing taste and intent 20:35 The merchant suite: search, sizing, personalization, agents 23:00 Modular by design 23:50 Traction: 70 merchants, 20M shoppers, -30% returns 24:50 Why average order value is a useless metric 25:35 Use of proceeds and coming to the US 26:30 The fundraising journey and cap table 28:50 Fashion, shoes and future categories 30:15 Why AI can crack sizing when others couldn't 32:50 Product-led growth: no marketing, no sales 33:35 Agentic commerce adoption in Europe 37:15 AI platforms vs. brand sites and product context 38:55 Live demo: eComID on Houdini Sportswear 42:30 Wrap-up and how to reach Oscar ๐Ÿ‘‰ Connect with Oscar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oscarrundqvist/ ๐Ÿ‘‰ Learn more about eComID: https://www.ecomid.com/ ๐Ÿง  Want to stay ahead in AI commerce? Subscribe and follow along: ๐Ÿ“ฐ Subscribe to the free Substack: retailgentic.ai ๐Ÿ“บ Watch episodes on YouTube & Subscribe for updates: https://www.youtube.com/@Retailgentic