Known for its apparel sizing technology, MySize has introduced a new footwear solution that is designed to help online shoppers find the right size shoes. With many footwear brands adhering to internal, not universal, size guidelines, this technology is aiming to make it easier for consumers to match their specific foot dimensions to the right size in every style.
Footwear has consistently suffered from high return rates compared to other segments of fashion, in part due to the difficulty in determining the right fit. While many brands and retailers now offer size guidelines on their websites, the differing specifications used at each brand can still make fit a challenge. Even styles within a single brand can adhere to different sizing rules, leaving consumers to guess or order multiple sizes when shopping online, with the intention of returning at least one pair (a practice knowing as “bracketing”.)
“As e-commerce booms, so do returns, and footwear is a big part of the expense – costing retailers dearly while frustrating customers in the process,” said Ronen Luzon, CEO, and Founder of MySize. “With the launch of our footwear sizing solution, retailers will finally be able to seamlessly address the problem before it happens and cut return expenses dramatically, while giving customers a better experience in the process.”
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With its new footwear-specific technology, MySize claims it can help both consumers and retailers achieve the perfect fit in one try. The software takes consumer foot data, that it collects non-invasively with a smartphone photo, and maps it against individual shoe specifications, to determine the right size for each shopper, in whatever product they are looking to purchase.
Users of MySize can store their footwear information in the same profile as their apparel data, making it easy to get size recommendations for various kinds of fashion products. Each consumer receives a personalized recommendation tied to their unique foot data; this information is privately stored within the application.
“Since the MySize solution will deliver the real measurements of the consumers’ feet, the size recommendations can be made very specific to the consumer foot shape and dimensions and subsequently matched to specific brands,” said Luzon.
Footwear is known to be a more complicated product to create sizing technology around, due to the numerous components involved in every shoe and the various data points that must be mapped on the foot. In order to create its footwear application, Luzon explained that the company had to collect sufficient foot data and shoe specifications for AI technology to learn how to recommend the right fit for every unique shopper.
This complexity is also what makes sizing insights so critical; MySize claims that up to 50% of footwear purchases are returned, which can erode customer loyalty while costing the business both time and money. The right size shoe is also about more than aesthetics; ill-fitting footwear can cause discomfort, create health issues and decrease athletic performance, in a way that ill-fitting apparel may not.
The MySize footwear solution will be publicly available for e-commerce merchants in Q1 of 2021 and has been adopted by several existing customers, to roll out on the launch day. The technology is able to integrate with all leading e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Lightspeed and Magento, and will only display on footwear product pages; the apparel MySize experience won’t be impacted.
