Fit is not only essential to consumers and designers, but it also often causes a high volume of returns.
To reduce returns and help consumers spend their money more responsibly and choose the silhouette that best suits their body type, two technology-driven companies, eComID and Pinterest, are each offering new and We offer options.
Takeout is very necessary. According to a report by the National Retail Federation and Appriss Retail, product returns cost U.S. retailers alone $816 billion in lost sales in 2022.
Some of the consumer dissatisfaction may be due to the product not living up to its online image. In fact, 11% of the 190 major brands and retailers in the US and Europe surveyed by Coresight Research cited it as a reason for returns. Additionally, 69% of respondents (whose annual revenue ranges from $50 million to more than $5 billion) say revenue is a critical business challenge.
Building on its commitment to fostering more inclusivity, Pinterest is launching Body Size Range, a new feature that allows users to narrow their search for women's fashion and wedding ideas by recognizing their body type and size. Rather than using size details or descriptions to determine which body type fits them, users rely on four different images. Instead of tags like “pear-shaped” or “athlete,” the platform simply uses images to represent different body types. Rachel Hardy, Pinterest's director of consumer product marketing, described the decision as “purposeful,” saying it's easier for people to judge how it fits them by looking at the image alone. He said that this was found through research. “Images are easier to understand than words. We thought about iconography and words, and we tested all of this to create a diverse set of images that users can actually understand and see themselves in the process. I came up with the idea of creating it,” she said.
Pinterest developed body shape ranges using AI as signals to help staff understand how to classify bodies by analyzing shapes, sizes, and formats from the more than 3.5 billion images on the platform. When a user enters a search query related to women's fashion or weddings, such as “spring dresses,” four visual but unnamed ranges pop up as options. “We didn't intentionally name the range specifically. There's a larger range, he's two in the middle, and then there's a smaller range,” Hardy said.
According to Hardy, during the soft launch, engagement levels per session were 66% higher when using the body shape range. “That leads to more shopping behavior. It means they're spending more time [on the platform]save more images and buy more stuff,” she said.
During the development phase, we included input from experts, creators, and Pinterest users, including size, to help Pinners find more inspiration and use fewer modifiers on the platform.
This new tool is the latest addition to Pinterest's extensive and comprehensive AI suite, which includes searches for skin tone and hair patterns. This is a real pain point and need for users of our platform who haven't been able to find inspiration that resonates with them based on their body, hair type, and skin type, Hardy said. Told.
Another Stockholm-based tool, eComID, aims to help retailers reduce returns with an AI-powered platform. The technology is designed to encourage informed purchases, minimize returns and reward customers for sustainable practices. Launched in September 2023, eComID has approximately 1 million daily users. To date, the startup has raised approximately $3.28 million in two investment rounds. The recently closed pre-seed round was led by CapitalT, the Netherlands' first female-led tech VC fund supporting software companies in the future of climate technology and work. H&M Group Ventures, the investment arm of H&M Group, led the incubation investment round in July 2023.
Oskar Lundqvist, one of eComID's co-founders and CEO, said the platform is live in Europe, the United States and India, and plans to scale it up. Founded to create a more conscientious and informed way to shop, eComID “helps brands make more prudent shopping decisions by reducing excessive return rates,” he said. Stated. He Afound, H&M Group's digital outlet, and He Arket, an e-tailer that markets itself as “the pursuit of less,” are two of the company's customers.
Lundqvist has worked in the fashion industry for several years and is familiar with how various companies are trying to solve the return problem using avatars, body scanning technology, size recommendations, and more. But most companies aren't tackling the issue “holistically,” Lundqvist said, taking a proactive approach to helping retailers and consumers at the same time. Lundqvist added that eComID helps brands hold accountability and responsibility for return behavior, similar to how other services like Uber and Airbnb do ratings. The return rate for some customers was 90%.
