We have a great opportunity for you!
You have spent great effort in building a strong brand and a beautiful website. You have taken the time to select the best imagery for your store. At the surface all looks ready. However, most likely, you did not pay too much attention to the experience around the way your customers choose the right size. If this is your case and you want to boost your sales via digital channels, you can no longer ignore this step.
The in-store retailers know something you don’t
Selecting the right size is one of the most decisive parts in the purchasing journey of a customer.
“When shopping for clothing in-store, 79% of adult consumers try on the items before buying…. The fitting room is still an opportunity to make a personal connection with your consumer since it is still an integral part of the overall shopping experience.” (NPD Data Group drive growth)
Besides, many customers are willing to wait in long queues in front of the fitting room. They want to make sure that they chose the right size. If the queue is too long, some customers customers may even decide to leave the store without purchasing anything. The fitting room experience is so important in the retail segment that many retail stores rely on professional services such as WaveTec to deal with queue management.
eCommerce needs to wake-up
Take a look at the ‘fitting room’ experience of the vast majority of eCommerce stores. Try for yourself to find the right size for you. How did you like the experience?
Two out of three times you will be presented with a basic chart that is not really appealing and most likely completely disconnected to the overall brand experience. To bring in an analogy: sizing charts are like the ugly and boring ‘user manuals’ that came with your electronic gadgets years ago. This was the norm until Apple made their user manual an integral part of their customer experience, with beautiful designs and glossy paper.
In addition, you need to start matching your measurements against a table packed with numbers. Believe it or not, this is great mental effort for most customers. Yes, either they stand up from the sofa and pick up a pen and paper or they need to do the math in their head…. ‘my bust seems to fit in size M, but I am rather L on hips, and what was my waist….?’
Apart from the confusing number matching experience, let’s face it, only 10% of customers in our survey, know their body measurements (bust, hips, waist) ! To make things worse, at least 60% of interviewed customers do not own a meter to take measures or do not remember where to find it.
The e-commerce stores that fix this pain, will have won a great a battle.
Understand this to increase sales
Your customers know that choosing the wrong size will lead to trouble and will prefer not to buy than to go through the pain.
First of all the initial disappointment. They have been waiting and anxious to receive their order. They dreamt about wearing that garment on a special occasion. Once they try it on, the size is not fitting. Big disappointment.
Your customer will start looking for your return policy: will the return be free? Where is the address? Is there a sticker or do I need to print it? How will I be reimbursed? When will I have time to bring it to a post office?
Alternatively, your customer may have chosen multiple sizes to make sure he gets the right one. Even then, he has to go under the pain to return the rest of the sizes.
In either case, your store ends up losing. You have incurred avoidable administration costs to manage your returns and your image ends up associated to a painful process in your customers minds.
Throughout this journey, your customers have related your brand to a cumbersome experience. On the next occasion, he or she will remember that your brand could mean trouble. What happens next ?
Many of your customers will avoid your brand and will end up going to the same old brands where they have shopped in the past and where they are familiar with the sizing.
It’s the right time to change something ! Let us show you how Size Fox can solve this in a matter of minutes.
