FITA PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS

Multiple Size Alert Reduces Returns by 6%

Whitney Buha

Nov 23, 2020

4 min read

As apparel shopping continues to shift from offline to online, more and more customers are forced to adjust to a new way of shopping. During the last 5 months alone, COVID-19 has shortened the timeline for evolution from brick-and-mortar to online from 5-10 years to a matter of months. While consumers are concerned with fitting room accessibility and the fear of shopping in stores, they are now looking to e-commerce to fulfill their shopping needs.

This isn’t a new trend for the retail industry. In fact, according to Statista 59% of U.S. shoppers purchased clothing online between Q2 2018 and Q2 2019. We expect to see that number rise in 2020.

Confusion Around Sizing

Customers who are new to online shopping, or seasoned online shoppers who purchase from a new store, find themselves lost when trying to choose the right size online. The apparel industry is known to have several size discrepancies across different brands and retailers. A woman may wear a size 6 in one brand and a 10 in another, which leaves her wondering which size to buy.

A Costly Problem

This is not only a problem for the shopper, but also for the retailer. When customers are unsure of what size to buy, they tend to order multiple sizes of the same product in the hope that one of the sizes they purchased will fit. The customer keeps one size, but ultimately returns the other. This is a poor experience for the shopper and it negatively affects the retailer’s bottom line when they are constantly receiving returned goods.

The returns issue for retail is not going away anytime soon. It continues to escalate as online shopping grows in popularity. Optoro, a returns technology company, found that more than 5 billion items worth around $400 billion are returned every year in the US alone. This extreme number results in around 5 billion pounds of waste to landfills and 15 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Time to Enable Multiple Size Alert

Our retail partners realize the importance of helping their shoppers choose the right size. That’s why they implement Fit Finder and enable the Multiple Size Alert. Multiple Size Alert notifies shoppers when they attempt to add a second size to their cart, encouraging them to utilize Fit Finder to choose one size – the right size.

Retailers who enable this feature have seen a decrease in multiple size orders. We analyzed the aggregated multisize orders for the retailers we tested, which determined that shops who enabled Multiple Size Alert saw a 13% relative decrease in the incidence of multiple size orders. As a result of this decrease, these same retailers saw a 6% reduction in return rate.

The decrease in multiple size orders indicates that shoppers who receive an alert to choose one size, and therefore use Fit Finder to find their best size, are more confident in their purchase. They do not feel the need to order multiple sizes of the same item, which would have led to the return of at least one size. Retailers reap the benefits of Multiple Size Alert when customers make fewer multi-size orders and return fewer items, thus saving the retailer money and reducing their carbon footprint.

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