Japan’s biggest online fashion retailer may have the sizing technology to solve the perennial problem of ill-fitting returns.
Fashion is the most popular ecommerce category worldwide; however, up to half the clothing purchased online is returned, mostly due to poor fit. To offset the inconvenience and encourage sales, many retailers offer free returns, which squeezes margins and creates logistical problems with recovering and re-selling merchandise. An effective sizing technology that helps prevent returns is highly sought-after. Depending on its size, lowering the return rate even 1% could add significantly to a retailer’s bottom line. It could also give sales a big lift.
Over the past few months, Start Today, whose Zozotown platform dominates online fashion retail in Japan, has started sending customers its new body-measurement suit, called the “Zozosuit.” The spandex bodysuit is covered with hundreds of fiducial markers, used as points of reference for measurements. Customers don the suit and slowly rotate as their smartphone takes photos through an app. The company then uses the data to make size recommendations as well as custom clothing from its Zozo fast fashion brand.
Start Today board member Masahiro Ito says the fashion industry has not yet adapted to meet the needs of a generation used to buying everything online, to their specifications and at their convenience, The Economist reports. “We offer exactly that,” he says. The industry is watching, and fast fashion giants like Fast Retailing, H&M, Zara and Asos are especially keen to disrupt fashion once again – this time with practical, effective sizing technology.
Ultimately, Start Today’s Chief Executive Yusaku Maezawa sees the future of online fashion retail in bespoke services. “The time where people adapt to clothing is over, this is a new era where clothes adapt to people,” he said. Masahiro Ito talks about creating a “size-free future”, in contrast to a fashion industry that has traditionally been restricted to a fixed range of sizes.
Apart from how it could impact the future of the fashion industry, the success of the Zozosuit is important to the future of Start Today, which some analysts caution could be reaching a saturation point. Technology-enabled bespoke services could help it attract more men, who make up only around 30% of active users, says retail analyst Osamu Yamada. Others place more emphasis on the need to expand abroad. But from the company’s perspective, much is riding on the Zozosuit. “We’re an established company in Japan, and we’ve made huge commitments to factories, so we’re ready to make this go big,” said Ito. “We’re going to try anything we can to get people to try the suits.”
