Consistent sizing across apparel brands is a pipe dream, and with the future of in-store experiences such as fitting rooms in doubt, or at least altered for the time being, apparel retailers are seriously going to have to up their fit technology game if they intend to grab more of the consumers’ wallet as they shop more online.
One company is seeking to alleviate this by offering customizable sizing charts designed to make it easy for independent clothing sellers to provide customers with an accurately advertised, quality product.
Sizegem gives e-commerce sellers illustrated size charts that provide measurements for a wide array of clothing pieces, footwear, home goods and even furniture. Within apparel alone, Sizegem offers more than 200 customizable chart templates in categories such as men’s shirts, blazers, jackets, trousers and jeans; women’s blouses, dresses, blazers and jeans; unisex sweatshirts and T-shirts; footwear; outerwear and children’s clothing.
The charts are available to all online sellers and are already used by independent sellers on platforms like eBay, Amazon, Shopify, Poshmark, Mercari and other e-commerce sites. Shoppers can create and view size charts using a desktop, mobile phone, tablet or other mobile devices.
Sizegem is compatible with imperial measurements, like inches, feet or pounds or the metric system. The platform automatically converts inches into centimeters and adds both measurements to a shopper’s chart.
By offering a more standardized approach to demonstrating sizing, sellers on secondhand and fashion resale platform could grab more market share, especially if consumers hit by recent job losses and tumbling economic fortunes trade their clothing and shoe spend from first-quality markets to pre-owned goods.
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“The need for reliable and trustworthy measurements with online shopping continues to grow,” said Sizegem CEO CT Kenyon. “Size charts are essential for those selling clothing and other goods as users will not buy unless they can be assured that the product will be a right fit.”
Given how distressed apparel retailers already are, they cannot afford to risk having shoppers buy clothing online that doesn’t fit. A 2019 report from e-commerce marketing platform Yotpo notes that 88 percent of fashion shoppers admit to having returned fashion items purchased online in the past year, with 51 percent returning between $50 and $500 dollars’ worth of online fashion merchandise.
And to make matters even more complicated, 61 percent say they order more items than they intend on keeping at least sometimes due to ease of returns. That means apparel retailers are dealing with the headache of handling an influx of sent-back merchandise.
And while the returns issue always comes up when talking about online apparel shopping, the future of the apparel store amid COVID-19 suggests that more issues will push fit tech to the forefront. For one, 65 percent of women and 54 percent of men say they harbor safety concerns about trying on clothes in dressing rooms, according to a survey from First Insight.
Apparel retailers are taking varying approaches to reopening their fitting rooms as stores reopen. Gap Inc. is one retailer temporarily closing fitting rooms as it begins reopening stores, while Nordstrom is among the many retailers modifying them to reduce density and maintain social distancing.
Upon reopening, Macy’s will only keep a select few fitting rooms open at a given time. They will be sanitized frequently, and employees will hold items that have been tried on for 24 hours before putting them back on the sales floor.
Sizegem is making plans available for all sizing needs and budgets. Prices range from $9 per month for clothing size charts to $18 per month for all size charts. It’s is also offering a free trial plan with 27 template designs.
All paid plans include an HTML Listing Template, in which sellers can embed their size chart within their e-commerce site’s HTML coding.