Online fashion platform, Zalando has launched a new tool that enables customers to receive size recommendations based on their unique body measurements.
By taking two pictures of themselves with their phones in tight clothing, Zalando said it is able to predict the customer’s body measurements to help them find the right size for their fashion purchases. It is reportedly the first such feature to be used by a company at its scale.
This feature has initially been made available for customers in the DACH region and can be used for women’s tops, including dresses. According to Zalando, it has traditionally been one of the most challenging categories for customers to find the right size.
“Helping customers find the right fit is an important part of deepening customer relationships. It’s frustrating to wait for an item to then discover it doesn’t fit. 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,” said Stacia Carr, VP Size & Fit at Zalando on the new feature
Zalando added that customers will have full control of their data-sharing preferences when using the body measurements prediction tool. Photos are deleted and do not leave customers’ phones.
As part of its plans to digalise the future of retail Zalando announced its virtual fitting room, in April, where customers can try on select items to check for size and fit. So far, it has been piloting the feature which allows customers to create a 3D avator by entering their height, weight and gender, which can then used to try on a select range of items. Using the avator, customers can see how different sizes from various brands would fit them, with a heatmap indicating where the item sits tight or loose.
Due to its in-house team working on size and fit, the company has also reported reduced size-related returns by 10% compared to items without size advice. The fitting room experience is based on both Zalando’s technology and the one developed by Fision, a Swiss mobile body measurement app developer, which Zalando acquired in 2020.
