We are turning into a nation of online shoppers: 84 per cent of men and 85 per cent of women now shop online, official CSO data shows, and the figures are rising.
The Covid pandemic and associated lockdowns have a lot to do with accelerating the push towards a digital market. It was already happening, but at a much slower pace: keep us all in our homes; shut down any non-essential retail; and push socialising, education, work and business online. And the end result was inevitable.
Online shopping suits me. I like to do things at my own pace, without the added pressure of sales assistants asking if I need help or bored small children wondering when I’m going to be finished and trying to open changing room doors so they can escape.
But shopping online for clothes can be problematic. Even if you fit the average sizing, this can vary from retailer to retailer – and from clothing style to style.
If you fall outside the very narrow definition of average for designers, then good luck to you.
You are dependent on “fit advice” from other shoppers to see if the sizing is accurate, and even then it won’t tell you if this particular item will look boho chic, or like a sack loosely tied in the middle, a DIY project that has gone badly wrong.
So you end up buying two or three sizes in the expectation that you can return the ones you don’t like and keep the best of the lot.
There are a couple of ways that this particular scenario plays out. First: one fits like a glove, you return the other items in perfect condition and everyone is happy.
Second (and more likely): you intend to return the ill-fitting items, you put them in the boot of the car, and forget they are there until the day after the return window has closed. You get to pay for clothes that you can’t wear and the retailer doesn’t have to deal with your returns.
Third: nothing fits. You find out the retailer charges for returns, especially if you are returning more than half of the shipment. You are down money regardless, and the retailer may or may not be able to resell the item. No one is happy here.
A number of retailers – Boohoo, Uniqlo, New Look – are now charging for returns. Asos charges frequent returners to send back stock unless they keep 40 per cent of the order.
They claim there are good reasons for this. While free returns may have tempted consumers initially, retailers are now finding the cost of those returns are having an impact on their business. If retailers have to swallow the cost of processing a return, that could be an average of 27 per cent of the item’s original price, it is estimated.
Irish company Swan thinks it has the answer. It has developed a virtual try-on tool that will work across different websites, with no downloads necessary, only a product link. The ultimate aim is that it will give you a better idea of how the clothes fit your body, so you won’t have to buy multiple sizes.
All you need are a few suitable photos of yourself – full length with few visual distractions in the background should do it – and the web link for the product you want to try on to get started.
But it is not just about superimposing some outfits on your image. Swan’s system will take a short video scan of you through your smartphone’s camera, gauge your measurements and give you size suggestions and create outfits from links you supply within seconds. And it does so in a way that respects your privacy.
The body scan itself is simple: there’s a voice prompt that tells you how to stand, when to spin and when it is done. And although the system can be embedded into fashion sites, Trinity spin-out Swan isn’t waiting for the fashion industry to get on board: instead it is offering the product directly to the consumer.
There are a couple of reasons why this is exciting. You don’t have to buy three different sizes just in case; you can get the right size the first time. That means you also don’t have to pay for returning them to retailers and they won’t have to foot the bill for boomerang shoppers.
But forget about the financial side of things. Swan is about more than saving retailers a few euro or keeping our own cash in our pockets. It is about preventing the mountain of waste that comes with it.
Fast fashion and our vast consumption of it takes a toll on the environment, even before you take into account the impact of shipping and returning it.
And when clothing is returned, it doesn’t always get resold, with millions of garments destroyed each year. Returns are inspected to see if they can be resold, but removing tags or visible signs of wear could rule that out.
Figures from the Ellen MacArthur foundation in 2022 showed that less than 1 per cent of clothing was recycled. The equivalent of a truck load is sent to landfill or burnt every second, it is estimated. Not all that is down to online returns, but with a higher return rate than in bricks-and-mortar stores, online shopping certainly isn’t helping.
Perhaps this Irish start-up could be one that makes a difference.
