Bambu.

Framing the Problem

What is the problem you are trying to solve? Who does it affect?

UK shoppers returned more than £4.1bn of online clothing purchases last year, according to analysts at GlobalData. Estimates show that the figure will rise by 16.7% before 2027. 85% of Gen Z in the UK feel as though they have been failed by the lack of transparency in the fashion industry in 2023, and is estimated to have grown since. Additionally, 82% of online clothing complaints in 2026 regarding online orders.

Now, when people search for clothing online, they are only shown a limited range of options, mostly large, paid-for and sponsored brands, meaning they miss out on the full range of products, prices, and businesses actually available to them, including pre-loved items.

On top of this, there is very little transparency in the fashion industry. Shoppers have no easy way to check whether a product is actually made from the materials stated, who supplies the product, or which charities and causes a brand chooses to support, as well as whether the product is in line with the focus on the circular economy. This makes it very difficult for people to know whether the brands they buy from are truly ethical or sustainable. Shipping costs are also often hidden until the very last step of the checkout process, meaning shoppers only find out the true cost of their purchase when they are about to pay. This lack of upfront pricing makes it harder for people to make a fully informed decision before they commit to buying.

This problem mainly affects conscious consumers, primarily aged 18–35, who care about where their money goes and who they buy from. These are shoppers who want to avoid results that are driven by sponsorship and advertising, and instead find brands that are honest, ethical, sustainable, and fairly priced, all in one place.

Idea Explanation

What is your idea? How does it fix the problem?

Bambu is an AI-powered app that helps people find clothing that matches what they actually care about, whether that is regarding its price, materials, sustainability, or ethics.

When a user searches for a clothing item, the app displays results from a wide range of stores and platforms, both large retailers and small businesses, all in one place, as well as showcasing and shedding light on pre-loved clothing. Each result is shown alongside key information, including the material and its sustainability, the full price including shipping costs upfront, where the product is sourced from, and the causes or organisations the brand supports, as well as focusing on worker ethics behind the brand. Every listing also carries a clarity score touching on sustainability and transparency, which covers all of these areas at a glance, red for not so good, orange for mixed and green for a great score. If any information is unavailable, this is clearly flagged rather than hidden, keeping the experience honest and transparent.

Small and independent businesses are given the same visibility as big brands, giving them a fair opportunity to be discovered based on their values and practices rather than their advertising budget.

If a user wants to dig deeper, they can tap on any item to receive an AI-generated summary with more detail on the brand's practices, along with links to reputable third-party sources so they can do their own research with confidence.

The app also features a dedicated rankings section where stores and fashion brands are listed and ranked by their overall sustainability score, giving users a quick and easy way to discover and compare brands based on their values. Through this the platform promotes transparency in the fashion industry, with a focus on enhancing the shopping experience regarding sustainability.

To keep results authentic, Bambu is trained to never show AI-generated images in its search results, only real product imagery through AI training on this. In terms of income generation, Bambu earns revenue through affiliate links embedded in the search results, meaning the app receives a small commission each time a user makes a purchase through the platform at no extra cost to the buyer, as well as through featured listings, where sustainable brands can promote their work.

Implementation

How do all the pieces fit together? Does your frontend make requests to your backend? Where does your database fit in?

Currently, the app uses a Figma mockup to demonstrate the user flow from initial request to producing results. As well as this, we have a React Native implementation of the code that uses dummy data to mock up user interaction, such as the gamified swipe left and right functionality that is used by the AI to improve future recommendations. We have modelled this animation so that it can be better understood.

In the production code, we aim to use APIs in combination with scraping (in line with regulations) from selected companies to show how the app would work on a larger scale. Tinder's swipe left and swipe right features were implemented using React Native Gesture Handler. Currently, no database is used to store information, as the project was not focused on back-end development. In production, we would use LLMs to derive our conclusions.

Challenges

What did you struggle with? How did you overcome it?

One of our biggest challenges was ensuring we could effectively deliver on the transparency we are promising consumers. Our immediate approach is to use publicly available, validated data to populate the information shown, such as from audits and verified entities - this prevents companies from making false claims. Looking ahead as our user base grows, we plan to approach brands directly for partnerships in order to deliver greater transparency to our users and demonstrate the tangible benefits of improving their practices and engaging with our platform.

We also struggled with validating our ideas and narrowing them down to the ones with the most impact. We overcame this by anchoring every decision back to our core problem statement, transparency and applying a cost-benefit approach to ensure we were only pursuing the areas that would make the biggest difference to the user.

Finally, thinking about the product from a commercial and economic standpoint was a learning curve. Talking through the idea with people outside of the team helped us stress-test our thinking and approach it from angles we had not considered. Also, identifying how to make sure that all stakeholders are satisfied, the stakeholders being the consumers, businesses, and investors. We overcame this by viewing the idea from the lenses of each of these parties.

Accomplishments

What did you learn? What did you accomplish?

We learnt the value of bouncing ideas off others - doing so helped us identify gaps in our thinking, challenge our assumptions, and discover new ways to strengthen the idea. We developed our ability to research thoroughly, verify sources, and ensure every piece of information we used was credible and relevant.

As a team, we grew in our ability to debate constructively, building on each other's ideas whilst being willing to challenge them, which ultimately led us to a stronger and more focused final concept. In terms of what we accomplished, we built a user interface from scratch, developed a technical version of the product that demonstrates its core functionalities, and sharpened our problem-solving and critical thinking skills throughout the process.

Next Steps

What are the next steps for your project? How can you improve it?

Our immediate focus is on development. This means moving beyond the current interface and building a fully functional version of the platform, ensuring it delivers on everything we have set out to achieve. A significant part of this will be the back-end work connecting to the necessary databases so that the AI is equipped with accurate, reliable, and up-to-date information to power the app effectively.

Alongside this, we will be working on building partnerships with the brands we plan to feature on the platform. These relationships are key to ensuring the depth and quality of information available to our users from the outset.

In terms of how we can improve, as our user base grows, we aim to encourage greater engagement and transparency from brands directly using our platform's reach and impact data as a tool to motivate them to be more open about their practices.

Looking further ahead, we see a clear opportunity for global expansion, particularly into markets with a high concentration of socially conscious consumers who share the same values as our target demographic here in the UK. In the future, looking at expanding on ways in which we can make more money through our user base, such as introducing premium subscriptions without compromising on what is already available.