Uncertainty about the right size keeps many consumers from ordering shoes and clothing online. It also causes a lot of unnecessary returns, so Zalando works on innovative solutions.
No standards
“If you ask people if they know their dress size, the majority will answer ‘no’. People find it a great challenge to find clothes that really suit them. This applies to both online and offline shopping”, says Stacia Carr, director of engineering at Zalando. She directs an innovation team that deals specifically with the size issue.
“A long time ago, before retail, clothing was made to measure by your tailor or grandmother, for example. You had a direct, individual relationship with the maker and you were able to express your preferences. That changed with the shift to mass production. Brands design clothes for the masses, with average sizes. Add to that the fact that there are no standards for fashionable items: what is a size 36 for one brand, can be 38 for another brand. Consumers know this and therefore often limit themselves to a few brands that they are sure will fit.”
Removing frustration
For a company like Zalando, that is a huge problem. More than 20% of consumers are still reluctant to buy fashion online, because they fear that a piece will not fit, even if they know the size. As a result, they do not buy – which for the e-tailer means missed sales – or they send back many items. “One in three returns has to do with sizing issues. These are unnecessary shipments.”
The fact that this costs a lot of money to Zalando is not the most important reason to do something about it, says Carr. “What matters is that we want to be able to offer people the same experience online as when they go shopping in a physical store. There you can also enter the cubicle with three different sizes. We want to free people from the hassle, the frustration, and give them more confidence. We want to remove the threshold that prevents them from buying a pair of shoes or jeans from us.” That is a necessity for a company that has set itself the ambition to be the starting point for fashion.
Personal recommendations
Carr’s team therefore devotes itself to devising solutions for the sizing problem. Some of these solutions are still in their infancy, others are already operational. Today, for example, Zalando already indicates in the product information in the webshop whether the sizes of a specific brand are larger or smaller. “You know that with one shoe brand, its size 40 fits you perfectly, while with another brand a 40 is tight. We provide this information based on feedback from our shoppers, who can indicate which size they wear from which brands.” This non-personalized information, for all shoppers, is only a first step.
Personalised advice is the next step. Customers can already enter and manage their own custom profiles: “Based on your account and your order history, we can give you personal recommendations for individual items. We then advise you to order a size smaller or larger of that specific piece.” That sounds easier than it is, however: “Even if our algorithms are correct, we still need to communicate this very clearly. Not all shoppers simply rely on our advice. We have learned this from our own employees. A colleague was advised to order one size smaller than he was used to, and did not understand that very well. Rightly so, we need to explain that better.”
In any case, Zalando is better placed than anyone to deliver personalised advice. “With our 28 million unique customers and our huge range of brands and models, we understand the fashion landscape. We have the data, we understand different patterns and we can help different types of consumers.”
Body scans
In the medium and long term, Zalando is investigating the potential of innovative technological solutions. An interesting one, for example, is virtual try-on. With the help of 3D technology, you can see how a certain piece of clothing would look to you. Zalando already tests this with denim today: you select a certain body shape and then you see the result. With the help of augmented reality, you can go even further. Think of the smart mirrors that are already being tested today by various physical retailers.
Body scans can also offer a solution. “In itself, it would be great to be able to simply say: ‘here are my sizes’. You create an avatar and you can then receive clothing that fits perfectly. In the long run, this technology will find its way, but there are still major challenges,” Carr thinks. The question is, for example, whether consumers will be willing to share this personal information. Also, the scanning needs to be accurate. “Scanning itself is not the main issue, but the circumstances in which it is done, at the consumer’s home. Think of the background, the incidence of light…” This year Zalando will start a body scan pilot project for customers of personal shopping service Zalon. The aim is to learn from practice.
Driver of change
What should these initiatives ultimately lead to? “I think that the fashion industry is going to take the step towards ‘mass customisation’, customisation on a large scale. I am thinking of production in smaller batches, for example per hundred pieces. This way you can bring more variation in sizes and patterns. This in itself is perfectly possible: the cutting and sewing machines are available. The bottleneck is on the logistics side of the business: it is becoming more complex. On the other hand, if you have smaller, local factories that will serve customers in their region, the fashion industry will immediately become a lot more sustainable. It would mean a huge shift for the sector, the industry would change dramatically! It is still early days, but consumer expectations are rising rapidly and the sector is now in the ‘perfect storm’ that is opening the way to innovations like this”.
Although Zalando has been around for eleven years and has some 14,000 employees, it still feels like a startup, says Carr. “The company is very open-minded and fast. After all, retail is a demanding business. If you always remain pragmatic and do not allow for innovation, then you will never change things. You can never predict which solution will eventually break through. I think that European companies are a little more cautious in this respect than the startups in California, where I come from. But Zalando finds the right balance between, on the one hand, operational execution, optimising day-to-day operations, and, on the other hand, innovation, dealing with different frames of reference. We are an initiator of change in the fashion industry.”
