Updated: Dec 16, 2019
The year is 2019 and Rihanna’s beauty brand Fenti has just launched their latest and greatest - a concealer that comes in 50 different shades.
Woah, really, 50? Why so many?
Because, the year is 2019, and thanks to Rihanna we’ve finally gotten the beauty folks to embrace that there is more to skin tone than fair, medium and dark.
Could someone pass this memo over to the fashion industry? There are 7 billion people who all at some point wear clothes, but brands are still pigeon-holing customers of all shapes and sizes into 3 vaguely defined letter categories.
Back in reality, over 86% of humans have body measurements that don’t neatly translate to one of three magic letters. Most of the time, the customer’s experience with your sizing chart goes something like this - they find themselves to be an “S” based on their chest but also an “XS” based on their waist measurement and wait, actually, no they should be an “M” because hips.
“Sizing charts. The reason your return rate is growing and your sales…..are not.”
You are not a sizing chart, your customers are not sizing charts. Why have them rely on one to gauge how a garment will fit?
Did that skirt fit like a second skin when it first arrived only to ride up mid thigh the moment the return policy expired, or when you raised your arms to make a ponytail or grab the subway rail holding on for dear life during morning rush hour? There is no universal sizing system, that’s why we need to provide customers with the garment’s “fit”, some clothes run big compared to most other brand’s sizing others run small. Throw in the variables of height and weight and you’re likelier to predict a hurricane’s exact 10 day path than how Samantha will look in the dress at the top of her Christmas wish list.
“Here’s what the customer isn’t going to learn from your sizing chart - the dress is going to feel tight in the chest and too loose in the shoulders and for a lady with the delicate stature of 5’3’’ this “minidress” ends up covering her knees. - Astrafit
My magic sizing chart tells me that for that dress you’ll be happiest in size “R”.....return it, Samantha.
This confusing, frustrating experience for your poor customer is a bad fit. Bad fit ruins online shopping. Bad fit runs brands into the ground. Because surprisingly, like people, not all “M” sizes are created equal. The “M” varies across brands, sometimes fitting the “S” parameters of another brand and sometimes it is nearing the size of another brand’s size “L”.
Get rid of sizing charts on you website and get a real solution - Astrafit’s fitting room, with access to all the features you need to run your business like a boss and become your customer’s hero, just over the brief span of your next coffee break.