By Jana Illhardt /Cologne
Buying clothes online from the comfort of your own home is a great way to browse the latest fashions free from hassle. But it does have one big drawback: you cannot try the clothes on.
If you buy a garment online it’s a good idea to order it in different sizes to make sure you get one that fits. Surveys suggest Europeans are gradually turning to electronic stores to find the clothes they want. In Germany, for example, 9% of fashion sales are now online. Of that figure, about 40% are sent back to retailers by customers.
“That’s because there are no uniform standards,” according to Axel Augustin from Germany’s Association of Fashion Retailers. Another reason is that Europeans are changing physically. “We’re not just bigger than we used to be, our proportions have altered as well,” he says.
That explains why growing numbers of people are finding it difficult to buy clothes that fit. “As a result many customers are placing orders in two sizes so they’ll be sure to get the right one,” says Augustin. Some online retailers are trying to manage this by offering their customers virtual fitting rooms on their websites.
Sebastian Schulze and Asaf Moses have developed software called Upcload that allows customers to identify the right size to order.
“The shopper has to provide demographic data such as age, sex, weight and body size,” explains Schulze. “After 20 seconds Upcload provides a recommendation of which size to try.”
Several big name retailers are using Upcload such as outdoor clothing company The North Face.
American department store chain Macy’s has a tool on its website called Jeans Finder that does the same job. It combines demographic data with questions about the customer’s preferred clothing style.
There are also size-finder tools that use references: software maker Shoefitr has a smartphone app that compares shoes the customer already owns and finds comfortable to recommend brands in the same size.
The company Human Solutions is pursuing yet another method. Its tool, Vidya, simulates clothing by generating images of different materials, styles and even folds in the virtual cloth.
Body scanners such as Vidya are also being offered by Bodymetrics and Styku but opinions differ on how well they work. “They can only be described as an aid,” says Augustin. “It’s very difficult to get a good image of the materials.”
Augustin has identified yet another problem associated with online shopping: “You can’t touch the clothes.” That’s a very important part of the shopping experience and is essential for deciding what to buy.
Shopping adviser Stephanie Zarnic agrees. “Customers want to know if the material scratches, if it’s too thick or too thin. They can only find that out by feeling it.”
Zarnic says shoppers want to not only see what they are buying, they want to touch it and compare it to other garments. - DPA