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Virtual Fitting Room
During the initial developmental stages of e-commerce, fashion brands were hesitant to set up online stores to sell their fashion products as consumers were not able to try on the clothing before purchasing. This applies especially to luxury fashion, since the products are relatively more expensive.
The development of online fashion stores is made possible with the input of detailed data of descriptions, measurements and multi-angled photographs of the products. However, research shows that fashion consumers still prefer to try on the clothing before purchasing them. Many online store retailers have adopted flexible shipping return policies for customers who are unable to fit into their purchased products. However, this is cost-inefficient and a hassle for both parties.
Developments in technology have led to the implementation of virtual mirrors whereby customers can virtually try on their clothing available on the online stores. This will enable shoppers to get a better perception of what they look like in their desired products and reduce the hassle of returning unsuitable products.
Fits.me
One of the more established and successful player in the market of virtual fitting rooms would be Fits.me. According to the chief executive and founder, almost ¼ of garments are returned to online retailers and 70% is due to the wrong size. The Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room helps boost the profitability of online clothing retailers by enabling them to overcome what is described to be “the biggest obstacle facing them” - the fact that it is impossible for online shoppers physically to try on garments before buying.
The first product of Fits.me is more expensive and technically sophisticated. The Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room uses male and female robot mannequins that mimic any size or shape of male or female bodies. They are dressed in each garment and photographed several thousands of times. The shopper will input his body measurements on the retailer’s site, to enable the Virtual Fitting Room to display the accurate photograph from the database of a virtual model that corresponds to his body measurements. The output of this process is a comprehensive image database and there is a high accuracy rate in matching customers with a garment that fits them.
ADVANTAGES
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Increase customers’ confidence in clothing fit and sizing
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Encourage customers to purchase the clothing items that fit them well
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Improve conversion rates and decrease garment returns
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Allow users to select a snug, regular or loose fit option across various body parts - a differentiating factor from competitors (as seen in image below)
DISADVANTAGES
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The Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room requires up to 2,500 images from retailers for each garment. Retailers will be required to laboriously take additional specific photographs and this increases the time for the garment to be launched online.
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There will be increased expenses incurred and it is not cost effective to capture images for every garment. The Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room will be suitable for prestige brands and not mass market retailers who aim to quickly sell their garments. Fits.me should invest in finding methods to lower the cost of implementation.
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Fits.me is currently available in only a few countries such as UK, Germany and France. Fits.me is also planning for “a major push into markets outside Europe” to scale up capacity — including the U.S. Fits.me can also consider expanding into the Asia market, which is booming in the current global economy.
Apart from entering new markets, Fits.me can also provide an interactive system for customers to share the images after the garment is fitted onto their virtual body and obtain feedback from their peers.
Fashionista
Fits.me was launched in 2010, but we can see a similar concept of the Virtual Fitting Room developed back in 2009 with a shopping application, Fashionista. This application was available on the online retail store Tobi.com. It uses augmented reality for customers to try on the garments and they can send the items to their shopping cart with a “thumbs up” button and discard those they dislike with a “thumbs down” button. Customers can even capture an image to send it to their friends for extra opinion. However, it is no longer used on the online retail store as it was not useful in determining whether it would fit the customer.
Nonetheless, the video below is an interesting visualization of an earlier concept of the Virtual Fitting Room before Fits.me was developed.
Futuristic Dressing Room
The concept of virtually fitting on clothing has also led to the development of magic mirrors in brick and mortar stores. For example, in Uniqlo's San Francisco Flagship Store, virtual dressing rooms are now available for customers. These virtual dressing rooms are able to switch the colours of the featured clothing that the customer tried on to select their most preferred choice. This saves them the hassle of having to try on clothing of different sizes and colors to determine which fits them best. Furthermore, an image can be captured and shared via social networking platforms or by email to get advice from their friends as to which colour would suit them.
The video demonstrates how the Magic Mirror technology is used on a customer at the Digital Signage Expo 2013.
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Image source: http://fits.me/solutions/fit-advisor/
If you wish to find out more about this fashion technology, do not hesitate to head over to their website!