Looking for the perfect fit? Online fashion retail - opportunities and challenges

This paper broadly describes the e-Size project as well as presenting the preliminary results of its first pilot test - an exploratory survey administered to a convenience sample of customers in the attempt to establish whether the integration of a size recommendation application into a menswear fashion retail website had been successfully achieved by verifying the size recommendations made by the application, and to assess the user experience of the application in order to determine its suitability for live user testing on the retailer’s website. From the preliminary findings it emerges that all participants found the size recommendation application easy to use. The majority of participants received the correct size recommendation from the application, and would be willing to use the application due to its helpfulness in providing a size recommendation when shopping online, however, users’ personal style and fit preference is an important factor, irrespective of the size that fits them correctly. By integrating additional garment and fit information into the application, retailers can ensure every user will be able to receive a tailored recommendation that meets both their size and personal style preferences.