Virtual Fitting Rooms: Changing Rooms Going Virtual To Lay Fit-Related Doubts To Rest

How about trying garments on your 3D digital dead ringer to see if they fit your actual physical dimensions before you buy them from an online fashion store? Sounds like the gifted boy wizard of the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has invented a new transfiguration trick. Today, even muggles like you and I can take full advantage of this new feature. The new technological wonder blurring the lines between online and physical fashion retail is virtual fitting room. The technology simulates the in-store dressing room environment and gives web shoppers a fun-filled, painless, and intelligent fit solution. Shoppers always have a doubt about how a garment will look on their own body, and hence ordering online was a matter of hit-or-miss and that’s why they prefer shopping at physical stores where they can actually try the product. But virtual fitting rooms are leaving less space for doubt by offering several benefits to the shoppers.

Minimized returns and increased conversion rates

As the hydra of returns keeps rearing its detestable head and threatens to throw the financial condition of organizations in shambles, internet fashion retailers remain vigilant about customer satisfaction. Virtual changing room platforms are an excellent way to zoom sales through heavily augmented conversion rates. Moreover, due to a significant drop in returns, the collateral environmental impacts also get drastically abated. For most of the shoppers, it’s frustrating to the nth degree if they find that shopping on apparel seller’s website is a bit of a leap in the dark. Thus, matters related to fit become important and impact the sales directly. Subsequently, when items purchased arrive at customers’ doorsteps, they have to be prepared for an unpredictable outcome- either a great fit or an unsightly misfit. To straighten out this precarious scenario, fashion retailers are embedding advanced facilities in their websites to check out garments virtually. Shoppers can now have a fab shopping experience devoid of uncertainties.

Virtual fitting room technologies are embraced by the big-wigs in fashion retail

Fit technology majors like Fits.me, True Fit, Metail, Dressformer, Clothes Horse, or Virtusize are supplying fashion outlets a variety of the latest tools to set up changing rooms on the web. According to the requirements of retailers, some popular variations include photo-accurate fitting rooms, size recommendation solutions, robotic mannequins, 3D models of customers, and augmented reality. Respected fashion labels such as Hugo Boss, Adidas, Pretty Green, Thomas Pink, Superdry, Austin Reed, Hawes & Curtis, Crew Clothing and others are using one or more of these variations to help shoppers visualize how clothes will look on their bodies. At the fitting room, a customer has to feed some basic measurement inputs like height, arm length, waist, etc., and smart technology will do its part. Instantaneously, a virtual doppelganger will come live on the user’s screen wearing the selected dress and inform whether and how it will pass muster in terms of fit. In some cases, 3D models will replicate diverse real life situations to present shoppers with a detailed view of clothes from as many angles as possible. Users can also try out various lowers, tops, accessories, shoes at the same time to get a complete look.

Is it for you?

Of course, it goes without saying that these services can play an instrumental role in maintaining an unhindered flow of revenues. But, are they cost-effective or cost a bomb to fashion retailers? That hangs on the nature of the business. If it sells attires to an upscale populace, then expensive technologies can score a bull’s-eye, otherwise, simple recommendation platforms are good enough. Again, asking customers to share too many specifications might be construed as an encroachment on privacy.

Digitization increases intelligence

With virtual fitting rooms, each individual customer’s exact size and fit details along with preferences are recorded digitally. This offers a tremendous potential for understanding the unique preferences of each customers and offering them with the right choices based on their sizes and purchase patterns. The possibilities of personalized marketing, when the retailers are armed with this unique information and insights, are astonishing.

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