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This New Personalized Shopping App Aims to Be the Netflix for Fashion

Founder of Sept, Yara AlDhaen. Photo: Hafsa Qasem

Bahraini Yara AlDhaen introduces herself as a 28-year-old Capricorn with a law degree. “I passed the California bar two years ago,” she notes, adding that all along she had been working on a new and entirely unrelated venture – Sept. Launching this month, Sept, whose name is a nod to the lucky number seven, is a fashion app uses algorithms to tailor style and shopping preferences. Ranking products in real-time, Sept aims to offer customers the opportunity to own their preferences. “We don’t all share the same music and film taste and our Spotify and Netflix reflect that; so why do we need to look at the same product feed, endlessly scroll, and then try to make a choice? We want to celebrate our customer for who she is and curate a shopping experience that fits her unique style,” states AlDhaen.

Courtesy of Sept

The idea came to the young entrepreneur while scrolling for a dress to attend a wedding. “As much as I love fashion, I found the experience exhausting and time-consuming,” she says. “I love my Netflix and Spotify because they get me, but when it comes to fashion, as much as personal style is so personal, the experience isn’t.” While AlDhaen may not have a tech background like many of her peers in the startup world, she isn’t lacking in gumption. Attributing the entrepreneurial experience as an “amazing learning curve,” she surrounded herself with a capable team and considered from the get-go – her naivety to be a blessing. “If you know how hard things are to bring to life, you would not start them in the first place. Being a young woman in a male-dominated industry with no tech background has been a challenge enough,” she says.

Courtesy of Sept

Made for the Arab woman, the Sept personalized shopping experience strives that no two feeds will be the same. It begins with a 30-second quiz – similar to Apple Music – to determine users’ favorite brands, cuts, and fits. A homepage sends daily “today for me” items and an option to swipe right for “me” or left for “not me” to help optimize. On the social feed, the user discovers what other Sept community women are admiring; once a customer clicks “buy,” she is redirected to a partner e-tailer – Farfetch, Net-A-Porter, Matchesfashion.com, Ssense, and Moda Operandi are already on board – to complete the purchase.

Sept is available in the Apple App Store.

Read Next: Is Chanel’s Lipscanner App The Future Of Beauty?

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