American Eagle’s Aerie launches a bot for bra shopping

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) and its Aerie lingerie brand have made bots for holiday shoppers and bra browsing. The news was announced today by Pandorabots, who created both bots.

Customers may shop bra styles based on the occasion (going out for the night, something soft, get fancy, etc.) or a preferred fit or style. The Aerie bot was also made to promote Aerie company culture through photos, videos, and the #AerieReal hashtag.

In 2014, Aerie started its Aerie Real campaign, a commitment to only present models as their natural selves, with no retouching or Adobe Photoshop usage in ads.

“We worked closely with the Aerie team, including copywriters, designers, and brand voice to create a chatbot with a distinct persona that celebrates body positivity and promotes confidence in young women,” said Pandorabots CEO Lauren Kunze in a statement shared with VentureBeat.

In addition to bra shopping, the bot invites people to share their own unretouched photos and introduces them to models like Iskra Lawrence.

Aerie is best known to some as the company that hired Lawrence in 2015 after a previous employer told her that her hips were too big to be a model.

The Aerie bot is available in the Kik Bot Shop.

Also available today is the AEO Holiday Gift Guide bot.

“After being prompted for relevant information about whom they are shopping for and completing a short quiz, the user is presented with gift options based on the personality of the recipient,” Pandorabots said in a statement shared with VentureBeat.

You can chat with the AEO Holiday Gift Guide bot on Kik and Facebook Messenger.

American Eagle joins several other companies making bots for fashion or holiday gift guides. Sam’s Club, Nordstrom, and the largest mall in the United States have all launched holiday gift bots in the past week, while brands like Burberry and Tommy Hilfiger have used bots to launch new fashion collections.