Straight to the point
Shoes are considered essential accessories in the wardrobe of many consumers. According to a survey by Statista, footwear sales are increasing more and more, and by 2027 they are expected to reach 508 billion dollars in the US alone.
Sales growth is not just due to physical retail, as we know that eCommerce was an essential contributor for this increase during the pandemic.
In 2020, online shoe purchases increased by 69% and in the following year, with the partial reopening of physical retail, there was an increase of 7.4%.
However, this increase does not only bring good things, as new acquisition channels also bring new barriers to purchase decisions. One of them, for example, is the insecurity about choosing the ideal size to buy.
When buying shoes online, we’ve all asked ourselves, “Will these shoes with this specific shape fit my foot?”
This fear was prominent in a survey carried out by the National Confederation of Managers and Shopkeepers (CNDL), which states that 1 in 10 consumers are still afraid to buy shoes online.
This is understandable, and several aspects of online shopping can generate these doubts about size, since when buying in e-commerce, all interaction is mediated by technologies and processes that differ a lot from the experience of physical stores.
As users do not have the footwear in hand, it is difficult to understand how the shape of the product will fit their own foot, even if the brand has good product descriptions.
As an alternative to this dilemma, retailers have opted to offer the Virtual Fitting Room for shoes. These virtual fitting tools use information provided by the user to give a size recommendation. This has allowed for the online shopping process to be more similar to what happens in the physical store, which is when the customer asks an attendant, who then recommends the ideal size according to body characteristics
Want to delve deeper into the features of the tools available on the market? Receive a copy of the e-book “Sizing – Available Technologies for Size Recommendation” that compares the features of more traditional sizing tools.
How does the Virtual Fitting Room for shoes work?
As mentioned previously, Sizebay developed the Virtual Fitting Room in a way that resembles how the size recommendation occurs at a physical store.
In the first step of the tool, the customer chooses a brand of footwear that he usually uses, remembering that the order of the brands that appear in the list can be completely edited by the e-commerce.
In the second step, the Virtual Fitting Room asks what type of footwear the user uses more frequently. The available options vary between sneakers, sandals, soccer shoes, casual shoes and flip-flops, and each one of them has different measurements.
Then the tool needs to understand the user’s foot shape. This can range from narrow, regular or wide, and knowing this is important because depending on the shape of the shoe sold, it can fit the customer’s foot too tight or too loose, which can ultimately cause discomfort.
To finalize the recommendation with the information provided, we ask the number that the user uses in the shoe type that was previously chosen.
Then, we cross this information with the measurements of the product being tested and we are finally able to generate a size recommendation! We take all this into account to propose the size that best fits each foot shape.
Our algorithm searches for those measurements in the Product Measurements Table. This size chart, in turn, is provided to Sizebay by the eCommerce, or created by our team and approved by the store.
In addition to receiving the ideal recommendation, the user can also try on other sizes to know how tight or loose each size would fit on their foot.
That’s how the Virtual Fitting Room allows the consumer to virtually try-on every size, minimizing doubts about the size of the piece and reducing the cart abandonment rate.
Now that we’ve explained what the Virtual Fitting Room for shoes is and how it works, can you understand why this is an essential tool to improve the shopping experience in your e-commerce?
Reasons to have a VirtualFitting Room for shoes
Optimize the shopping experience
In a context where every detail counts to catch customers’ attention, a good shopping experience is strategic to increase your brand’s recognition and growth.
We know for a fact that doubts or uncertainties regarding the ideal size of products can harm your customers’ good experience. Therefore, the Virtual Fitting Room seeks to offer them greater personalization and a feeling of confidence that will allow for a great purchase.
Fewer exchanges and returns
Reverse footwear logistics usually generates a lot more expenses for e-commerce as compared to clothing exchanges and returns. This is due to the larger volume of packages and the space they require in warehouses. Other exchange costs range from the cost of transport to the possibility that the product cannot be resold.
With the implementation of a Virtual Fitting Room, we observed that by eliminating the doubts about size, the exchanges and returns decreased and key e-commerce metrics increased.
Greater environmental responsibility
Decreasing exchanges and returns can do more than improve your e-commerce metrics. After all, by reducing the use of resources and the emission of carbon dioxide along the logistics of products, your e-commerce reduces the impact on the environment.
This is an issue that has been highlighted among groups that are concerned with the environmental responsibility of the brands they consume. In a survey published by the company Statista, around 69% of consumers have changed the products and services they use due to concern about climate change.
So, this is definitely something that deserves to be taken into account, wouldn’t you agree?
Stand out from your competition
The number of people shopping online is increasing more and more each day, and this means greater competition between brands to catch the attention of customers and guarantee the sale.
In a market where you can find anything at any time, you need to invest in improving the shopping experience to make your brand stand out.
Results generated by the Virtual Fitting Room for shoes
Pontão Calçados is a store that has been operating in the market since 1994, and they began their e-commerce journey in 2021 to be able to expand its market throughout Brazil.
With this goal in mind, the entire service was designed to respond to customers’ need to find shoes that respond to style and fashion trends, with a personalized service designed to answer all questions.
Thinking about offering the best shopping experience for customers is what brought the brand to Sizebay’s Virtual Fitting Room.
With our tool implemented in the Pontão Calçados e-commerce, Sizebay analyzed the results for the month of August 2022 and found excellent results, such as:
What are the necessary steps to implement the Virtual Fitting Room?
The implantation of the fitting room for shoes is similar to the procedure of the Virtual Fitting Room for clothes. The biggest difference is that for shoes, the Measurement Table is for information only.
So, to start the process, Sizebay needs some information collected in steps such as:
- Access to the website, so that it is possible to register a test product;
- Access to creating and editing Tags via the store’s GTM, and ensure that the GTM is linked to the website (we also have the option of integration via code installed on the product page);
- The e-commerce must send the store’s product catalog to integrate it into our system.
Once this is done, it is now possible to implement the Virtual Fitting Room and register all the shoes in your e-commerce.For us to be able to implement the Virtual Fitting Room and improve the results of your e-commerce, the first step needs to come from you. If you are interested in learning about Sizebay’s flexible and competitive plans, just click on this link and schedule a conversation!
