The onlinefit problem has two aspects: the physical impossibility for online shoppers to

physically try on clothes before they buy, and the wide variation in sizing standards between
brands, retailers and even countries.

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With so many business and marketing consultancy companies advocating the importance of
customer interaction in the new online era, there is no surprise that many major fashion retailers
such as Tommy Hilfiger, Debenhams and TopShop have rushed to get their hands on the
technology that promises a new shopping experience. Whether the virtual dressing room is the
Holy Grail of customer engagement is still debatable.

What Is a Virtual Dressing Room And How Does It Work?

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Also known as a virtual mirror or virtual fitting room, this augmented reality tool usually
combines at least two technologies: augmented reality and motion capture. Used mostly by
clothing and glasses retailers, the technology allows a person to superimpose a virtual flat image
of a garment over their body (as seen through a camera).

One of the first applications that made the headlines of many technology blogs and magazines
was the Webcam Social Shopper from Zugara. Their first version forced users to print an
Augmented reality (AR) symbol and hold it in front of a camera so that the augmented reality
software would recognise it and add the garment on top. Sluggish and sometimes non-
responsive, this has soon been replaced by newer technologies where the fitting of the clothing
happens automatically within the live video stream. Motion capture technology then allows users
to scroll through the catalogue, take a picture of themselves or try different outfits simply by
pointing at the screen.

With greater access to lower cost augmented reality technology, different versions of the
AR fitting room have been designed, ready to capture consumers wherever they are. These can
be easily classified in three categories, depending on the locations where they are predominantly
used.

At Home

Developed initially for home computers, the AR fitting room took advantage of the increasing
popularity of webcams and Flash platform to tap into a new social trend and new industry sector,
valued at 100 billion per year in the UK alone: ecommerce.
On The Go
With the advent of smartphones and other smart mobile devices, augmented reality found a
new market to thrive in. Looking beyond technology developments, what is one of the key
features that characterises our modern society? Mobility: humans are continuously on the go,

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The Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room, http://fits.me
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Virtual Dressing Rooms: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, http://augmentedtomorrow.com/virtual-dressing-
rooms-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/2/#sthash.0peKmy2h.dpuf
which means the reality they experience is also highly dynamic. And what better way to augment
the reality then through mobile AR apps?
This was also in the minds of fashion retailers
when they launched the mobile virtual dressing
room. However, this no longer focuses on the
functional aspects of the application (nobody
wants to try on clothes in a park while looking
on a 4 screen for example) but on the
entertainment aspect. Fuelled by ARs novelty,
and bringing some other technologies under the
same roof such as geo-location and three-axis
gyroscope, the mobile AR fitting room becomes
a simple fun game. Enough to generate a sudden
interest from media and consumers, these apps
have already been used by big names such as Tommy Hilfiger, Swarovski or Debenhams. But
with more retailers expected to jump on the bandwagon, its only a matter of time until this
strategy will no longer be effective.
In The Store
The launch of Microsoft Kinect and its 3D
technology has not only disrupted the game
console market but also the augmented reality
industry. It led to a new generation of virtual
dressing rooms, firstly demonstrated by TopShop
in one of their Russian shops using a hacked
Kinect. This allows customers to see themselves
onscreen with a 3D copy of the garment.
Apart from PR coverage, there is one other critical
reason for which retailers may still want to have such technologies in their offline stores: to
educate and raise awareness about the AR tools available to their online customers.
The Future Of Augmented Reality Fitting Rooms
Although there is still much to go until 3D virtual dressing rooms can provide a useful functional
benefit to online shoppers, the direction and pace of the new developments look very optimistic.
The launch of Kinect open-source project made Microsofts device an important cornerstone in
Debenhams is letting shoppers try on virtual dresses at
5 British landmarks
TopShop AR application using a hacked Kinect
the development of home and store-based AR applications. Facecakes Swivel platform and
Fitting Realitys new Virtual Interactive Podium (VIPodium) launched at DEMO Fall 2011 use
Kinect to allow the 3D garments a real-life movement while being worn.
While most of these applications are still in their beta stage, large scale deployment may
be limited not only by the small number of valuable benefits but also by more down-to-earth
practical issues as pointed out by the augmented reality developer Zugara in one of their recent
blog posts. Low hardware penetration (regarding the depth sensing camera as the one used by
Kinect) and the lack of 3D assets of clothing may stop many manufacturers/ retailers from taking
advantage of this technology in the near future. Despite being work in progress, the virtual
dressing room is surely something to follow in 2014 and we will try to keep you up to date with
the new developments and their effects on the existing technology.

Fit technologies

Having begun to emerge from 2005, fit technologies started to be widely reported from
2010, but are now available from an increasing variety of providers and are in use by a growing
number of prominent retailers in their webstores. A fit technology may be categorised according
to the problem that it resolves (size, fit or styling) or according to the technological approach.
There are many different types of technological approach, of which the most established are :
- Size recommendation services;
- Body scanners;
- 3D solutions;
- 3D customer's model;
- Fitting room with real 3D simulation;
- Dress-up mannequins/mix-and-match;
- Photo-accurate virtual fitting room;
- Augmented reality;
- Real models.



Size recommendation services
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Recommendation systems offer the shopper a suggested size, based on a combination
of factors. Generally, only minimal fit information can be communicated by such systems,
because size is different from fit.
Some recommendation systems use existing garments to recommend a size, while others use
measurements taken by the customer. Recommendation systems have been developed for
products beyond garments, such as ring sizers. Examples of these recommendation systems
include Fits.me,one of the best AR fitting rooms service. Others still take a combination of both
measurements and existing garments (aka biometric sizing) and yet others add in style
preference-related questions. Those that take existing measurements either do this from their
own brand goods, or use databases of design measurements of supplier garments.
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The Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room
The Fits.me portfolio of virtual fitting room solutions boosts the revenues and
profitability of online clothing retailers by enabling them to resolve both these difficulties.
The Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room delivers the instore fitting room experience online, providing
shoppers with a photo-accurate visualization of fit. Fit Advisor provides fit information and
recommendations without photography. Mobile editions of our solutions enable retailers to
remain ahead of the growing m-commerce trend. The benefits of Fits.me solutions have been
authenticated and validated by our clients in the form of case studies and analytics:
shoppers that use a Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room convert at more than double the rate of
shoppers that dont (analytics, across all clients);
garment returns for reasons of fit can be reduced by more than three-quarters (77%, Pretty
Green);
improved customer loyalty: two-thirds of shoppers say that a vir tual fitting room gives a
retailer an advantage over competitors (67%, Hawes & Curtis).
List of Fits.me clients: Austin Reed, Avenue 32, Baukjen, Bilka, Crew Clothing, Ghost, Hawes
& Curtis, Isabella Oliver, Henri Lloyd, HUGO BOSS, L.K.Bennett, Mexx, Muubaa, Musto,
Nicole Farhi, Pretty Green, QVC, Savile Row, Superdry, Thomas Pink, Top Vintage and Viyella.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_dressing_room
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http://fits.me/solutions/the-fits-me-virtual-fitting-room/

Virtual fitting room solutions help boost the revenues and profitability of online clothing retailers by
enabling them to overcome the Online Fit Problem.
The Online Fit Problem has three parts:
1. It is clearly impossible for online shoppers physically to try on clothes before they buy.
2. There is widespread inconsistency among retailers and brands in terms of size names,
conventions and standards. This makes online clothes shopping a challenge for six out of ten
shoppers (Mintel, Fashion Online, March 2012).
3. The size of an item provides no information about the fit of that item. There is no way to know
how it will look on any individual person.
There are two direct consequences and one indirect consequence of the Online Fit Problem:
Buyer hesitation: buyers either never add the item to his/her basket, or fail to check out. This
happens because they are not confident about their choice. The result for retailers is: low
conversion rates.
High levels of garment returns: a customer who finds that a garment does not fit in the desired
way will simply return the garment to the retailer. Sometimes this is for an exchange, but usually
for a refund. The result for retailers is: high rates of costly garment returns.
Brand damage: returning a garment because it doesnt fit is disappointing to any customer, even
for speculative purchases. Any brand that disappoints its customers risks brand damage, however
smooth its returns process.
What is the scale of the Online Fit Problem?
The size of the US online apparel market alone is over $4 billion yet garment return rates
average 25% for online apparel sales of which around 70% is for reasons of fit.
Measured even in this simple way, the value of garments returned because of the Online Fit
Problem is $700m per year in the USA alone.
Color misrepresentation accounts for 5 to 7% of returns, while the feel of the fabric accounts
for 15% of returns. Bad fit, however is the reason for 60% of all returned garments.

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How does it work?
Example of http://store-uk.hugoboss.com online store Fits.me application. First the
online buyer enters a website and chooses his gender, male or female. After selection
his/her products, they enter the Virtual Fitting Room:
1. MEASURING YOUR HEIGHT
Take off your shoes. Stand straight with your back against a wall. Find a
point on the wall that is level with the top of your head. Measure from this
point to the floor.






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http://store-uk.hugoboss.com
2. MEASURING YOUR NECK
Place the measuring tape around your neck. Keep the tape low at the back of your neck and make sure
that the measuring tape passes the point where the collar button will be. Do not overtighten: allow two
fingers to slip easily between your throat and the tape for the most comfortable fit.


3. MEASURING YOUR CHEST
Measure the fullest part of your chest, with the tape positioned close under
the arms. Do not measure over your clothes. Breathe out naturally and take the
measurement.


4. MEASURING YOUR WAIST
Wrap the tape measure around your body, halfway between the top of your hip bone
and the bottom of your ribs. Breathe out naturally and take the
measurement.




5. MEASURING YOUR ARM
Hold the end of the tape measure in the centre of your collar bone, just below your neck. Holding the
rest of the tape, straighten your other arm out horizontally and measure to the end of your wrist.
After selecting the measures, the avatar has your size and customers can look at the
selected article and see how that fits. The application allows him to see which parts
of his body the clothing article is to tight (neck, in this case) or to short (arms).
The shopper can instantly wear other sizes
The shopper can instantly wear other sizes, view from the back and from the front and Zoom option.
The Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room will even give warnings about where a garment may be too tight, too
loose, too long or too short for example, in arm length, or collar size just as a shop assistant would do
in a bricks-and-mortar store.

Fit Advisor
Fit Advisor is a complementary solution to the Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room that provides fit
information and recommendations without photography for upper body garments, dresses and
trousers, including jeans. It is especially suitable for retailers with wide and/or shallow stock policies,
or that add/remove stock lines with high frequency.
Fit Advisor invites the online shopper to provide a few, key, body measurements, but then simply
asks the shopper whether he/she prefers to wear their clothes tight, with a regular fit, or loose. If the
shopper doesnt know their measurements, they can enter their height, weight, age and body shape
and we are able to calculate the remaining measurements that we need to accurately determine fit.

Our proprietary algorithms, using data that only we have, then recommend the size most likely to fit
best, and to indicate where fit is likely to be comfortable, tight or loose. Crucially, Fit Advisor takes
into account the fit preferences given by the shopper, ensuring they get the fit they want.
Breakthrough technology developed by Fits.me means a retailer needs to provide measurements for
only one size of garment in a range there is no need to locate, aggregate and measure perhaps
hundreds garments in each size the ideal solution for retailers with wide, shallow stock and/or
rapidly changing stockline.
Mobile

Both Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room and Fit
Advisor are already optimised for use on mobile
devices such as smartphones or tablets.
A new white-labelled mobile app from Fits.me
enables precisely this behaviour, using barcode
reader software and the barcode that every
item of clothing has on its price ticket.
Technology
Sophisticated male and female robotic
mannequins that can mimic any size or
shape of male or female body
Dressed in each garment in each
available size, the mannequins are
photographed several thousand times in
the studios as they morph through
thousands of permutations of size and shape.
The output of this process is a comprehensive image database. For each image in the database,
we know the precise dimensions of the mannequin.
When the shopper provides their measurements on the retailers site, the Fits.me Virtual Fitting
Room displays the photograph from the database that corresponds to that shoppers body size and
shape.
The robotic mannequins are capable of morphing into approximately 100,000 different shapes,
however for eCommerce only about 2,000 body shapes are used, and each garment is
photographed on each shape. The fully automated photography takes about fifteen minutes
per item, and garment samples are needed in every different size.

Virtual Fitting Room increased online clothing sales three-fold and decreased returns by 28%, on average.
It also effectively proved the highest return rate reduction among the more expensive clothing items.