To support the sale of a textile product and offer the customer the best fit, brands have always relied on the expertise of in-store sales consultants. But with the explosion of online sales of fashion products, the need to support internet users in their purchases is becoming increasingly important. Online sales should soon account for between a quarter and a third of apparel sales, depending on the country.
In the case of Levi Strauss, world number one in denim and owner of Levi’s and Dockers, with €5.8 billion in sales in 2021, online sales accounted for 29 % of total European activity. With free shipping and returns policies and depending on the market, apparel return rates range from 15 % to 45 %. For brands and retailers, beyond customer satisfaction, it is also about reducing the significant financial and environmental costs associated with this practice.
Several technology companies, such as Suit or Fitizzy, have developed solutions for brands to offer their customers a way to validate their size online. Levi Strauss, for its part, started working in 2020 with the Israeli solution MySizeID from the company My Size, managed by Ronen Luzon and founded in 2014.
«One of our top innovation priorities is to improve the online shopping process and create truly personalized and seamless experiences for our consumers,» said Lara Lasisz, director of direct-to-consumer innovation at LS&Co.
«With online shopping, one of the biggest hurdles facing the industry is how to transfer the experience from the dressing room to a digital environment. We are committed to finding the right technology that will help our followers find the perfect fit right out of the box.»
The collaboration was first tested by Levi’s in the Turkish market. The company has analyzed that 70 % of returns are related to sizing issues, and that these lose on average 50 % of their value after the return. By implementing this solution, the company recorded a 47% reduction in returns. Levi’s opted for a simple version available on computer and deployed with a mobile application that allows, after the customer has referenced his height and weight, to offer him the most suitable product. The founders of the technology company point out that these criteria can be fine-tuned according to their customers.
Levi’s doesn’t specify whether the implementation of this solution, via a button, on its Turkish website has allowed it to increase the value of its average sales basket, but Levi Strauss has decided to implement the solution in Europe. It is now active in France, Spain, Germany, England, the Netherlands and Italy. The group is announcing its arrival in a mobile version for the American market in June. It will also be enhanced with photos of people wearing the clothes, corresponding to the customer’s particular morphology.
For its part, MySizeID is highlighting its performance with another company. With the Turkish brand Penti, which has 600 stores in 35 countries and makes 30% of its online sales, it claims that transactions are three times higher with customers using its solution. According to its management, trust facilitates the validation of the purchases involved.
At the scale of a group like Levi Strauss, if the figures presented are confirmed, the profitability gain from digital operations could prove substantial, even more so with the current exacerbated increase in transportation costs due to rising energy prices.
MySize also intends to help retailers in their omnichannel developments, first with a parcel solution that best suits the customer’s order, but also by accompanying them in-store. Last February, the company introduced its smart mirror that provides suggestions to in-store customers, after logging into their MySizeID account, about products in their own size.
The mirror, developed with GK Software, is presented by Ronen Luzon as a solution to counteract stock shortages and minimize the number of store returns. For the time being, smart mirror technologies have not yet won over customers in stores. We will have to wait and see if MySize has come up with the right solution… and if we will soon find these mirrors in Levi’s stores.
