This summer my best friend got married. Translation: this summer I purchased six dresses online and then returned six ill-fitting dresses online. One week before the event, frustrated, disappointed, and seriously contemplating wearing jeans and a tee shirt, I walked into my favorite boutique’s fitting room, tried on one dress in two different sizes and voila! I walked out with my dress, a satisfied customer.
Poor fit is cited as the most common reason shoppers abandon or return clothing purchases online. In fact, according to retail consultant Kurt Salmon of the NPD Group, the return rate for apparel sites often exceeds 20%, and 75% of those returns are due to poor fit. And sites like Zappos, who practically beg you to return purchases by offering a no-hassle/free shipping policy, claim return rates as high as 35 percent.
The direct costs of return shipping and handling aren’t even the worst of it. The major concern for retailers is the loss of profits in the opportunity. Annette Kramer, principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers, explains that “just by taking the garment out of the sales cycle for a week or more, a retailer can lose 20% of the value of the garment, particularly if it is a high-fashion or seasonal item. Worse still, consumers who receive an ill-fitting garment are much less likely to buy again at the same store.”
For years, internet retailers have been trying to mitigate the risk of returns by offering shoppers better tools to make informed purchase decisions, such as size charts, front/back/side view shots, and 360-degree videos. Some of the more innovative e-tailers, such as Banana Flame have even gone as far as using augmented reality in an attempt to simulate the fitting room by projecting clothing on to the shopper standing in front of a standard webcam. However, this tool presents an image far from reality (note: my paper doll cut out below).
The fact is, no matter how appealing the product itself may be on screen, people still prefer to try on clothing before they buy it and will visit stores precisely for that reason. Unless, of course, we can create technology that can mimic the emotional experience of brick-and-mortar shopping, which is exactly what the high-tech firm, Fits.me claims to have done.
The new technology built by Fits.me allows users to create a robotic mannequin replica of their body to try on different sizes of clothing. Users enter their body measurements, then are presented with a digital form that mimics their shape and size. Antony Comyns, e-commerce manager for Hawes & Curtis, Internet Retailer Magazine, says Fits.me, “…provides [customers] more assurance that ordering from an e-commerce retailer will result in a properly sized garment. As a result, the conversion rate has more than doubled among [international customers] who use the Virtual Fitting Room.”
No doubt, this will be an extremely valuable tool for internet retailers and shoppers alike, but what if you’re like me and you’re completely clueless about your body measurements? And, really, who owns a paper measuring tape? Well, you’ll be happy to know that come this November another inventive company called UPcload plans to release a piece of software that can capture 20 exact body measurements of a user standing in front of a standard webcam within 40 seconds. Body measurements are then compared to the exact measurements of the clothing size and the user is given an accurate size suggestion, fitting suggestions (loose or tight), and presented images of models with similar body types wearing the clothing. Think about it. This means e-tailers can now simulate the fitting room salesperson, virtually up-selling and suggesting clothing ‘that would look great on you!!’ Imagine returning to the Levi’s store and being presented with images of your body type already wearing your favorite 501s. The possibilities for ecommerce personalization are endless, not to mention the overall improvement of customer satisfaction ratings.
If Fits.me and UPcload prove successful, they will have certainly revolutionized the way we shop online. I’ve signed up for UPcload’s Alpha testing set for next month. We’ll see if UPcload’s bold statement that you will ‘never return clothes again’ is in fact true. Stay tuned for my review!
