When was the last time you bought something online that was the perfect fit?
The rise of e-commerce, and consequently m-commerce, stemmed from the ever-evolving digital world we live in, where anything and everything is available to us at the click of a button. It has become apparent though that efficient shopping does not necessarily mean successful shopping. By successful shopping I mean buying clothes that you will actually wear, not including the items that are sent straight back or left in the back of your wardrobe, never to be worn or even seen again.
It is no secret that there is a very vague approach to the uniformity of sizing in fashion. Every brand is slightly different — you might be a size 10 in one store and two sizes bigger in another. Even within brands we see a lack of consistency.
Since body shapes and sizes are so varied, we could argue that it would be impossible to standardise sizing across the board anyway! This, however, does not resolve the issue of the frustration and lack of trust that we now associate with clothes shopping.
The stress and frustration of the sizing issue can more often than not override the ease and speed of online shopping for us, the shoppers. It is well known that certain brands participate in ‘vanity sizing’; so that when you shop with them your size is likely to be smaller than with another brand.
The psychological implications of this are massively overlooked. Since body image is ever-pressing, the little number in the back of a pair of jeans can mean a lot to a person, and having to buy clothes in a variety of sizes can certainly knock a person’s confidence. If you’re uncomfortable with what you’re wearing people notice and this can really affect your self-esteem. Something as simple as knowing that you are wearing the correct fitting clothes can be a motivator and can put a stop to that voice in the back of your head telling you to suck in your stomach or check that your skirt hasn’t ridden up.
As an outward expression of our personality, surely we should choose our clothes to make us feel good — as the process of shopping successfully becomes increasingly difficult, it makes me wonder; where has the fun in fashion and shopping gone? How can we make sure we’re not buying and therefore wearing clothes that make us feel insecure because they don’t fit.
Fashion Foie Gras blogger Emily Johnston talks to us about her personal experience with the inconsistency in sizing and the common style mistakes that tend to occur as a result of this, along with her recommended solutions;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo650YEUblo&t=29s
Shopping as a whole can be a hugely stressful experience for some people. Aside from the often claustrophobic and manic nature of crowded shopping centres and the minefield that is online shopping, having to deal with clothes that don’t fit according to what you think is your size is simply adding fuel to the fire.
Aside from the personal implications of the inconsistency in sizing, the retail industry itself is suffering from it’s own doing. The Financial Times (January 2016) disclosed that it can cost a retailer up to treble the amount of a product’s worth for it to be returned. And why do retailers face so many clothing returns? As stated in the FT article; “almost a fifth of online fashion purchases include orders with multiple items of a similar size, shape or colour” thus confirming that shoppers have a distinct lack of faith in being able to find an item that fits.
If any of this resonates with you, I’d like to tell you a little about my fashion-sizing app EyeFitU. Created from my love of fashion and equally my deep frustration and impatience with sizing. With EyeFitU I aim to to change the face of online shopping with a personal sizing platform so that these problems will be a thing of the past.
EyeFitU is a ground-breaking fashion portal; it has built-in smart technology that covers hundreds of brands and stores size charts and matches the user with the perfect fit.
The perfect fit — imagine that! Reduce your returns, stress levels and time-wasted and replace with shopping satisfaction. As EyeFitU’s technology gets smarter this personalised shopping experience helps you mindfully shop, increase in body-confidence and ultimately save money by investing in items that have longevity simply because they are the correct fit. Because, let’s face it, no matter how many clothes you have, you always go back to the clothes that you feel most confident in.
Originally published at medium.com