The biggest problem in fashion ecommerce is the waste caused by high return rates. In fact, 50% of purchases in fashion ecommerce are returned, and of these, 50% due to being the wrong size. That means that 1 in 4 purchases go back because the item does not fit the customer properly. Returns are bad for the environment because often the items are not going back on the market but instead just end up downcycled or even destroyed, thus having caused all those emissions without giving back any value.
Seeing this huge issue the startup presize.ai saw an opportunity to reduce returns through their software. Presize is a Munich based deep tech company with talents from 17 different countries backed by world class investors and advisors such as the accelerator Plug and Play or Hermès' former CEO Christina Rosenberg. Their product is a software that online fasion retailers can put on their website to help their customers to choose the right size.
Concretely, presize's solution requires the user to answer a few basic questions (height, weight, age and gender) and then to take a phone video while turning around to enable the camera to record the body from all angles. Alternatively, the user can answer more detailed body shape questions. These measurements are then translated into the sizes that the brand in question attributes to them. In an ideal world for fashion brands, people all looked the same across a size spectrum and thus we could all safely rely on standard sizes. However, we all know that especially for items such as pants, sizes can greatly vary for different brands. So, since sizing can be confusing (just ask Andy Sachs), especially when shopping online, presize aims at solving this 21st century problem.
Presize's application is embedded in the online store of its clients, such as in the screenshot below. By clicking on the green button you are redirected to QR code that enables your phone to record the video for your measurements.
This solution naturally has a very significant upside for participating businesses as well. While free returns have turned into a service basically always expected from online retailers, they obviously cause costs through shipping, sorting and reintegration into inventory (or even worse, through costs associated with the item's destruction). Reducing these returns thus represents a profitability mechanism for participating firms, in addition to increasing customer satisfaction who do not have to engage in the hassle of returning their purchases. In fact, presize claims that after implementing their software in ecom stores, retailers experienced 25% less returns from the presize-using customers. Additionally, they say that both the average order value and conversion rate for all users increased by 15% by creating trust in the fit of the product.
While the reduction of returns is indeed a very noble pursuit, since less returns means less items potentially wasted, in my opinion this innovation also has the danger of further pushing consumption ahead. People are likely to make impulse buying decisions online as compared to in brick-and-mortar stores for many reasons, such as direct marketing through targeted ads, the easy access of a virtually unlimited choice and perceived control over the product due to a high amount of information (both on the website and e.g. on review websites). So, while enabling them to make an objectively better purchasing choice is positive, also to reduce returns, from an impact perspective I am only partly convinced. Presize itself claims that the use of their software is related to an increased order value, so I personally see the danger of offsetting the gains from less returns by more purchases.
What is the impact of this?
The main impact of course is the reduction in returns, which according to presize brings an average of 500g of CO2 savings per avoided return. As just mentioned, in my opinion this software has the danger of further encouraging consumption, which from an impact perspective is of course quite undesirable.
What can you do?
Next time you shop online, check if there is presize's software that can help you with choosing the right fit.
But most importantly, of course think before purchasing something you are not even sure of regarding the size! The best emissions are the ones we avoid in the first place :)
And of course, share this article and follow us on social media!