Japanese online sizing tech specialist Makip has announced further tech enhancements with what it says is a “significant upgrade” to its Unisize product.
Online shoppers will now be presented with a 3D avatar of their unique body shape to see how their next fashion item purchase will fit them.
It’s now being offered as a standard feature of Unisize with consumers able to check their 3D avatar from four angles — front, back, left and right — and better see how a clothing item will fit their body shape before buying.
It comes as retailers and brands continue to work towards reducing online returns with size and fit issues one of the main reasons for an outsized number of returns by e-shoppers compared to in-person shoppers.
Research from Retail Economics showed that last year, while 17 out of every 100 products sold online across all categories were returned, the fashion industry saw return rates reach as high as 30% due to issues such as incorrect sizing. On average a quarter of clothing items are returned.
The problem for retailers isn’t just that consumers are returning items due to them not fitting as they expected but that those shoppers are now regularly ordering multiple sizes, colours, or styles of an item and would only ever keep one. Understandably, this is a major logistics problem and contributes to a huge number of returned items being marked down each season.
Unisize 3D works by generating a 3D avatar based on the dimensions of the clothing and the user’s body shape information. The avatar allows users to check the looseness and fit of the clothing item before making a purchase.
The 3D model can be rotated to provide a 360-degree view of the silhouette so they can see, for instance, how the item fits across the chest or arms when viewed from the side or how it hangs from the hips down to the ankles.
For trousers there’s also a key enhancement. With 2D online sizing, user images were displayed barefoot, but with the new 3D function, users can now view the silhouette while wearing shoes and the model’s footwear can be changed from trainers, shoes or heels. That said, this particular function is currently available for select avatars only.
Shingo Tsukamoto, CEO and President of Makip, said that with an enormous number of fashion items being returned “usually at the expense of the retailer, we feel that this cannot continue. In recent years, some retailers have taken a stand and started charging customers for returning items, however, we approach this from the view of customer experience. If we can provide customers with more accurate sizing options at the time of purchase, this leads to a reduction in returns. This has been proven across our Japan-based fashion clients with the average return rate dropping by 20%”.
He added that “in recent years, platforms like TikTok and YouTube have normalised individually tailored content, influencing all generations. Similarly, personalisation in apparel e-commerce is expected to become an essential element of the online fashion industry. We already have the FaceChange feature within Unisize, which allows users to upload an image of their face onto the model used for the fashion item, and our personalisation database allows returning users to compare previously purchased items with new items to see how the fit matches or differs.”
The new development comes after Makip this year set up a UK-based company, Makip London Limited, “marking an important step in accelerating its global expansion and strategy to strengthen its presence in overseas markets”.
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