Several Indian apparel websites have introduced online trial rooms to help clients pick up the best-fitting product. Other portals are following suit Can one imagine walking into a Zara or a Mango store,or for that matter,even an Adidas or a Nike store,which doesnt have a fitting room? Yet,when the same brands sell online,people cannot try on their garments before buying. The biggest drawback of online shopping is that the buyer does not know how the garment will look on him or her or how good is the fit. While for online shoppers,this translates into apprehension and unnecessary headache if they have to return the purchase,portals too have to deal with a lot of returns and exchanges. But all this may be changing now. Waking up to the need of providing customers with an equivalent of fitting rooms in physical stores,many e-commerce portals in India have now installed virtual fitting rooms. So,users can try on different outfits and accessories online live either by switching on their webcams or uploading their photo on the website. Some websites even use mannequins of various shapes and sizes that best suit the users body type. Apparel retailer Zovi.com recently launched a virtual trial room app called Zovi Eye. With its help,buyers can view themselves in their desired clothes via an interactive webcam application. Explaining this,Satish Mani,co-founder of the Bengaluru-based brand,says,We have realised that there are basically two concerns regarding buying garments online. One is ,will this fit me? and the other is will this look good on me? With Zovi Eye,we are trying to address the second concern. Even Myntra.com,which stocks more than 350 Indian and international brands including FabIndia,DKNY and Adidas,has confirmed that it is going to launch a trial room application in two months. The idea of virtual trial room is spreading to other retail segments as well. For instance,eyewear website Lenskart.com has just introduced the Virtual Mirror,enabling its customers to try on glasses while browsing its pages. Similarly home décor portal Kingschest.com has introduced an application wherein users can imagine a room by designing it step by step right from selecting the wall paint to furniture and upholstery. The idea of virtual trial rooms is new to India,but elsewhere in the world,companies such as Thomas Pink (the UK) and Ermenegildo Zegna (Italy) have been using it for more than a year. Besides,many websites abroad outsource their online fittings to independent websites such as Fitsme.com and Whatfitsme.com. Indian online vendors are yet to come up with similar services. Peeyush Bansal,CEO of Lenskart.com,justifies this. Several clothing and accessories websites in the West have been using such apps to interact with their customers. But online fitting rooms are new in India,simply because e-commerce is relatively new here. With diverse categories of users men,women and children,and that of products,are virtual stores as good as real? Bansal concedes that the Virtual Mirror may not be the best bet when it comes to side profile while it gives a limited idea of the front profile. Mani has already admitted that Zovi Eye doesnt help in figuring out the right size,even though it can give an idea about how a product will look on the user. In spite of its limited utility,the technology has found many takers. We have seen a 25-30 per cent increase in the revenue since the launch of this feature, says Mani,adding that the service will be available across Zovi merchandise soon. Adds Bansal,Though there is no direct way to measure if the app has helped in increasing our sales,it has surely made the returns manageable. Clearly,its helping the customers. Buoyed by its success,Lenskart.com is soon going to add similar applications to its sister websites such as Bagskart.com,Watchkart.com and Jewelskart.com.
