
Weinsoft says one online retailer that does a good job with sizing is Columbia: “Columbia emphasizes the size and fit guide high on their product detail page,” he says. Without these factors, ecommerce merchants and brick-and-mortar retailers with an online presence have to get creative when explaining how your apparel fits without overwhelming or confusing the customer. In-store retailers have the advantage of “trial-ability” and “observe-ability” simply by having a physical product to touch and try on, he says. 1 reason shoppers cite in their decision to shop in-store versus online, says Dan Weinsoft, ecommerce conversion strategist for conversion optimization advisory firm The Good. In fact, the average online apparel retailer experiences a return rate of 28%, and 80% of these returns are due to fit issues, she added. “When shoppers have to guess, one of two things happens: They either don't buy, or they buy two or three sizes and return the ones that don't fit,” says Morgan Linton, co-founder of Fashion Metric, a company that offers sizing tools for apparel retailers. This is particularly a problem for those retailers who sell exclusively online, as their customers don’t have the opportunity to try on items in a physical store.īut retailers can boost customer confidence, increase sales, and reduce returns by creating a comprehensive size chart - because there's nothing more frustrating for a consumer than simply hoping something will fit. Any savvy shopper will tell you that a size 6 dress in one store could fit very differently from a size 6 dress found at a competing shop. The problem is that whether you sell apparel with more generic or even numerical sizes (2,4,6, or 38 waist, etc.), none of them are completely standardized. Small, medium, and large: These sizes can vary widely when it comes to actual fit, and that can be a significant challenge if you sell clothing.
