Every now and again a company comes along with aspirations of changing the world. Sometimes that company is lucky enough to create a revolutionary technology that holds both economic and environmental merit. Tailored is such a company, but who and what is Tailored? And what is instant clothes measuring technology?
The Online Fit Problem
There’s a major issue troubling the fashion industry. Returns. It’s widely reported online retailers are plagued with an unfathomable amount of returns each year. 15-40% of all clothing purchased online is returned, costing retailers around $100 billion each year. Another disturbing fact is 30% of all the clothing produced each year is never sold. Meaning around 45 billion garments end up in landfills or incinerators, having never been worn.
Back to returns for a second. The majority of clothing returns are because of preference based reasons. The number one being the item did not fit the way the shopper intended. This is an important distinction. The idea of a good fit is subjective and one that is unique to Fashion. Take 10 people with approximately the same body dimensions and ask them how they like their jeans to fit, there’s a good chance you’ll get 10 different answers. Tailored was founded on the idea consumers should be confident they’re making the right clothing purchase online. Though the reality is shoppers lack confidence for a litany of reasons, hence the returns.
Tailored’s Solution – Automated Garment Measuring
Few tools exist on the market to aid online clothing buyers in finding a garment that matches their preferred fit. Even still, the tools that do exist are only marginally helpful. This is because these solutions refer to body measurements as their guide. Though body measurements have been the gold standard for hundreds of years, they won’t tell you how someone likes their clothes to fit.
The premise is instant clothes measuring technology simple, but there is some real magic behind it. Imagine placing a pair of trousers flat on your bedroom floor and snapping a photo of them with your mobile device. Seconds later you are shown the complete set of measurements for the garment. That’s Capture.
The applications for Capture are endless within the fashion industry. Currently the only way measurement tasks are completed is by hand and Tailored hopes to make big changes with Capture. One of the main changes is improving the online shopping experience. The Capture tool can be added to any clothing website to help improve consumers confidence, increase conversions and reduce returns. It is the only tool that can accurately determine someone’s fit preference, and use the data to suggest the right style and size.
Virtual Clothes Fitting
Capture for eCommerce is different than other virtual fitting rooms. Capture measures the clothes people already wear to help find new gear with a similar fit. It measures the most important areas on a garment with regards to fit. It then compares that data to the clothing sold online. This helps take the guesswork out of choosing a style and size.
Traditional fit tools available for eCommerce are focused on learning a shopper’s body measurements. Tailored believes the best way to learn how someone likes their clothes to fit is by looking at the items they already wear. After all, there’s a reason he or she purchased the item in the first place. Don’t believe us? Try chatting with a tailor or bespoke clothing retailer, they echo the same sentiments. Body measurements aren’t a good predictor of fit preference. Hence the reason Tailored shifted its thinking away from body measurements and onto clothing measurements.
Apparel Resale
The circular economy is booming. With sales expected to reach $50 billion globally by 2024, there is no shortage of vintage clothing or buyers. This is great news for resellers. As with anything positive, there is a downside to the resale industry.
Time. Most tasks performed by resale teams require human hands and humans aren’t the most efficient beings. There is little automation and thus retailers are limited in their ability to add process efficiencies. This is where Capture is changing the game.
Capture replaces the measuring and data entry tasks performed by humans. With this small change, resellers are able to see drastic increases in process efficiency, number of products listed each day, and a reduction in data errors.
Quality Assurance (future)
Once the team at Tailored began to see the results from their initial Capture builds, they were confided it could one day make its way into testing apparel during quality assurance. “We set out to build an automation software capable of mimicking the process a human takes to measure clothing by hand.” remarked Dave Desmarais, Tailored CEO and co-founder.
Unfortunately the fashion industry also relies heavily on manual labor to perform even the most basic of tasks. The industry also lags in innovation and Tailored is trying to change this. When available, Capture will easily integrate into various channels of the retail supply chain. Whether a retailer is looking to add efficiency at their headquarters, warehouse or factory.
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