Sat, Mar 17, 2007 page9

• No need to try before you buy

  Shoppers are increasingly turning on to the idea of recording their style and fit preferences at online sites which can help them to track down outfits that suit their tastes

  • By Bob Tedeschi / NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  Customers bought US$9.6 billion worth of apparel online in the US last year, according to Forrester Research, the Internet consulting firm. But not one of those customers tried anything on first.

  That is one reason that online purchases represent a paltry 5 percent of overall apparel sales. Customers return 30 percent of the clothes they buy online, industry executives say.

  So why not have a Web site where users can provide their basic body dimensions and style preferences, then see all the available clothing that would fit well and suit their taste? It is an idea so obvious that one wonders why it isn't an established part of online shopping already: Merchandise returns would drop, customers might well be happier and the Web site would earn a commission for every sale.

  

  That is the approach of a new Internet company, myShape.com, which has recorded the measurements of about 20,000 women in a five-month trial period that ended on Sunday. The women shopped from personalized clothing collections matched to their style and fit preferences and body dimensions.

  So far the method seems to be working, said Louise Wannier, myShape's chief executive, particularly among women 35 and older, the company's target audience. Customers are buying clothes at a rate far higher than the industry average, and are returning them at half the industry average. Shipping is free both ways.

  As impressive as these results may be, myShape's approach will probably fail to gain a mass audience unless the company can somehow simplify the measuring process, said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst with Forrester Research.

  "They're probably a little ahead of their time," she said.

  Mulpuru said only a small percentage of women would accept the site's offer to mail them a free tape measure, and fewer would go through the hassle of taking the measurements and logging them into the myShape system. Those who do, she said, are rewarded with a computer application that "does a nice job" of recommending clothes that fit the user's body and style preferences.

  Wannier, of myShape, said that as of Monday, the company was reducing the number of measurement and style-related responses it requires of users, to the point where they can complete their profile in less than 10 minutes.

  "We're still fine-tuning," she said.

  To some consumers, like Susan Chastain, a biotechnology consultant in Palo Alto, California, even the longer myShape measurement process was not too great a hurdle. Chastain said she sent myShape her dimensions in October, and had since spent about US$400 at the site on a pair of pants and two blouses. The clothes fit and matched her taste, she said.

  "What they recommended on the site reflected what I've been wearing or have been drawn to," Chastain said. "Some women might be surprised to find things that would look good on their body. But with no shipping fees, what's the downside of trying?"

  Mulpuru said one thing that might help myShape reach a mass audience would be if the company somehow offered to take body scans of people at malls and other locations, saving them the trouble of measuring themselves.

  Coincidentally, a similar service was to make its debut on Thursday. Intellifit, which makes body scanners that have been sparingly used in recent years to help fit customers at Nordstrom and Levi's stores, among others, will place a scanner at the Philadelphia airport and offer free measurements, in which users remove leather and metal items and stand in the scanning machine for 10 seconds.

  An Intellifit representative watches the user's valuables and logs the user's measurements and e-mail address into the system. Users are then sent an e-mail message with a password for Intellifit.com, where they may select from an assortment of clothes from seven companies, including Nordstrom, Levi's and Lands' End.

  The site will initially serve men but will add women's clothing in June, according to Albert Charpentier, Intellifit's founder. It features only men's clothing at the moment, he said, because men's apparel manufacturers change their styles less frequently and are therefore more likely to invest time in sending product specifications to him.

  Charpentier, who led the design team for the original Commodore 64 computer in the early 1980s, said Intellifit would install a scanner at Newark Liberty Airport and at Baltimore/Washington airport in the next three months.

  Even after getting the measurements of consumers, apparel-matching services like Intellifit and myShape face challenges. Clothing manufacturers can be reluctant to take the precise measurements of their clothes and send them along.

  Charpentier said he recently contacted Wannier of MyShape to discuss the possibility of a partnership. Among other things, Intellifit could help myShape increase the number of customers that submit body measurements, while myShape could help Intellifit break into the women's market.

  "There's definitely something we'll do together," Wannier said, adding, though, that it was premature to discuss details.

  She said her site featured more than 100 clothing designers, considerably more than boutiques but far less than a typical Macy's store. The choices on the site, she added, are sparser for women who wear petite and large sizes, and for those who do not want business-casual and weekend-wear styles.

  Designers working with myShape say they are optimistic about the site's prospects. Randa Allen, president of Notice, a Los Angeles designer featured on myShape, said, "I think it's way promising, especially for the generation that's growing up now with a computer attached to their arms."

  But she added: "We're baby-stepping it with them, though. Hopefully we'll be loyal to each other, and someday they'll be a bigger part of our business."

  Allen said it helped that MyShape bought items wholesale from her company and shipped them directly to consumers, instead of requiring Notice to do the shipping. Most designers on myShape, Wannier said, ship directly to consumers and myShape collects a commission.

  Should the Web site and Intellifit gain a following, they would join My Virtual Model, based in Montreal, and zafu.com, based in Emeryville, California, as technology companies most involved in helping customers find better-fitting clothes online.

  My Virtual Model has worked with Lands' End, Sears and other companies to offer on-screen representations that help those sites' customers try on clothes virtually before buying them. Louise Guay, chief executive of myvirtualmodel.com, said in the coming weeks the service would allow users to mix and match clothes from different retailers and replace the generic faces of the models with pictures of their own faces.

  Zafu, which began operations late last year, helps women find better fitting jeans and it, too, is expanding, said Robert Holloway, the company's chief executive. The site's traffic is growing more than 30 percent a month, and nearly a million women have logged body-measurement data onto the site and searched for jeans. In May, he said, Zafu would add plus-size jeans and in June, bras.
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