Can This New Fit Tool Benefit All Apparel E-Tailers?

Rakuten Fits Me, the size and fit specialist, launched Fit Origin, Essential Edition. This new edition will make online fit recommendations free to all e-commerce apparel retailers for the first time, enabling shoppers to break free from size for the ultimate experience in retail personalization.

Fit Origin is the fashion industry's market-leading technology that accurately fits apparel to the unique dimensions of individual shoppers online. The product is already helping retailers such as Hawes & Curtis and George (Asda) drive greater personalization in the way they engage, promote and sell to their online consumers, and — through this process — solve consumer confidence issues by providing sound size and fit advice.

Current sizing options offered by online apparel retailers do not match the body shapes of their consumers. Research shows that 86 percent of shoppers believe finding the right fit when shopping online is a gamble.  A further three quarters report that their size changes between different retailers, with 84 percent expressing disappointment when faced with the need to upsize. Rakuten Fits Me strongly believes that retailers should offer all shoppers the perfect fit, first time and every time. The launch of Fit Origin, Essential Edition, is in recognition of a market in need of a technology that can offer real personalization, based on fit recommendation technology that is readily available.

"We understand size doesn't always mean fit and through years of expertise and data, we've developed technology that helps our retail clients understand their customer's individual sizing and preferences," said Vicky Zadeh, CEO at Rakuten Fits Me. "The upside has proven to be invaluable. From dramatic reduction in shopper returns and improved customer satisfaction and loyalty to solid bottom line sales increases that keep our retailers competitive in the highly challenging retail arena."

Fit Origin takes just three simple measurements from the consumer — height, weight, age — and then calculates a consumer's most likely body shape, to determine perfect fit for any garment.

It uses collective expertise, gathered from categorizing garment types, attribute mapping, data science algorithms and historical consumer data, to create a deep understanding of body shapes, measurements and preferences. The algorithm also supports global differences in shopper shape, preference and build, with data collected from over 30 million unique profiles to create accurate recommendations.

"Rakuten Fits Me is an industry innovator and leader in the fit technology space, their sizing solutions allow us to engage our customer base in new, more sophisticated and personal ways," said Adam Bridegan, SVP of advertising, digital and e-commerce at Rhone. "Our online shopper experience is greatly improved, incremental revenue is up by over 20% - and what's more, our customers are telling us they love the fit tool."