“Send me a picture and I will guess your size”, Zalando‘s latest tool promises. This way, the German fashion webshop wants to help customers buy the right size of clothing from the first attempt, reducing returns in the process. Further expansions will include 3D avatars and virtual fitting rooms.
Reducing returns
“Helping customers find the right fit is an important part of deepening customer relationships”, Zalando’s Vice President Size & Fit, Stacia Carr, explains. “With the introduction of size advice for body measurements we continue to leverage our innovations to help our customers with one of the main problems of the fashion industry”. Using two pictures of a customer in tight clothing, the new tool can predict the customer’s body measurements.
Austrian, German and Swiss customers already can use the tool to get personalised sizing advice for tops and dresses. Currently, the feature only applies to women’s clothing. However, the tool will expand to more categories and markets in the future, the company promises in a press release.
Expansion
Zalando hopes to reduce the number of returns and, therefore, reduce textile waste. Indeed, the company will share its customers’ sizes with its brand partners so that they too can get to know their consumers’ fits better. Privacy-wise, the platform promises that the photos will not be kept, only the calculated sizes.
The size recommendations are a stepping stone to “a more personalised virtual fitting room experience”, Zalando believes. The company launched a pilot project to that end in April. In the future, both technologies should be integrated to allow customers to create a 3D avatar that more accurately reflects their body shape, taking into account their sizes.
