WHAT DOES YOUR COMPANY DO & WHAT IS YOUR USP?
Rakuten Fits Me offers a suite of personalisation software centred around fit which works to remove barriers to conversion, giving shoppers confidence that garments they are purchasing will fit them well. With clothing sizes differing across fashion retailers and brands and even across ranges, a size Medium in one product line may not be the same as a Medium size in a different range.
Also, two people who are the same clothes size may be completely different heights with different body shapes. Unlike other providers in this space, Rakuten Fits Me helps retailers offer personalised experiences by matching garment data with shopper data. It provides unique recommendations to each shopper based on information about their body size and shape, making online shopping quicker, easier and more fun.
HOW DOES YOUR SOLUTION WORK?
The core Rakuten Fits Me fit recommendation engine, Fit Origin, combines expertise gathered from categorising garment types, attribute mapping, data science algorithms and historical consumer data to create a deep understanding of body shapes, measurements and preferences. It also supports global differences in shopper shape, preference and build, with data collected from over 30 million data points to generate accurate recommendations. When a shopper enters their personal measurements into one of the Rakuten Fits Me solutions, the algorithm analyses the customer’s unique information and matches it against the actual measurements of garments sold by the retailer to give personal recommendations and advise the shopper on what size will give them the best fit. Data collected from the shopper includes age, height, weight and, depending on gender, bra size or neck measurement. The solution also asks them to identify their body shape. This helps shoppers to find the styles they love and feel great in – and also streamlines the steps-to-purchase for retailers.
WHAT’S NEXT
The company’s latest solution is Fit Match, a search addon that when activated shows the shopper only products that will fit them and are in stock in their recommended size. By enabling Fit Match, all the shopper has to do is ask themselves whether they like the item, rather than worry about whether it will fit them or if its even in stock. Enterprise clients get more control and flexibility with the fit ranking. Fit ranking allows them to define what ‘fit’ means and what degree of fit should be found for it to show in the search results. It also allows the retailer to boost
best-fitting products to the top of the page for a even better user experience.
Fit Match seamlessly integrates with a retailers existing search functionality, meaning shoppers can use the Fit Match filter in conjunction with other existing filters such as style, length or price.
Fit Match, like Rakuten Fits Me’s other products, remembers the data the shopper inputs so they don’t have to do it again the next time they shop. The ease of integration is a massive benefit to retailers and it looks and acts like it is part of the search bar, giving shoppers a completely native experience; increasing shopper confidence and therefore the propensity to click ‘buy’.
WHY IS FIT DATA VITAL FOR RETAILERS?
Uncertainty about whether they will get the right fit is a key barrier for shoppers when purchasing clothing online and can be of huge influence on conversion rates and brand loyalty. In converse, sending out a garment which won’t fit can lose a retailer customers since 80% of consumers won’t shop with a retailer again if they return their first order.
Rakuten Fits Me also helps retailers to gain a better understanding of their customers. While retailers track their customer behaviour they don’t know what consumers actually look like and they cannot be sure about fit satisfaction and how happy an individual shopper is with their purchase. All they know is that the garment wasn’t returned. Rakuten Fits Me shows what a brands core customer demographic look like and this insight can inform conversations with manufacturers around fit, sizing and how actual garments fit with the core customer base or consumers browsing a retail or brand site.
For global retailers, Rakuten Fits Me analytics also help with information on shoppers in different regions providing insight into body shapes, fit and style preferences. The Fashion IQ dashboard, for example, overlays this insight with conversion data and garment attributes to provide actionable insights to improve design and decisions around stock and sizing.
WHO ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS?
Rakuten Fits Me’s solutions are available to fashion retailers globally.
As the company’s IP is rooted in garment technology and data science, Rakuten Fits Me has excellent garment categorisation capablities meaning it can serve a broad range of retailers.
Current clients include J. Lindeberg, Peak Performance, G-Star, Mud Jeans, Billabong and QVC.
WHAT PLANS DO YOU HAVE FOR THE FUTURE?
The next few months Rakuten Fits Me will be focused on further rolling out the Fit Match solution across clients and brands that want to give their shoppers a personalised on-site search experience. The company has an exciting roadmap planned for 2018 as it seeks to provide retailers and shoppers with tools that will further reduce barriers to shopping online. Watch this space…
CUSTOMER CASE STUDY
Rhone is a premium, men’s active wear brand which was founded in 2014. Its success led to its customer service team soon being overwhelmed with size and fit related queries, particularly through online chat. “It was clear that our customers needed more support than our size chart to find the right fit online,” says Adam Bridegan, SVP of Advertising, Digital and eCommerce, Rhone.
In order to help its shoppers make the right decisions when choosing what products to buy online, and in what size, Rhone started researching the various size and fit technology options available to retailers in 2015. Accuracy of the size recommendation and fit advice was a top priority, and the company wanted to work with a vendor which would use their own product data rather than inferring a recommendation based on purchase and/or returns data (the latter is known as collaborative filtering).
In the first month of implementing Rakuten’s Fits Me Fit Origin, the solution was able to prove its value. The conversion rate of Rakuten Fits Me users on Rhone’s website was 9.8% versus nonusers who converted at just 3.7%.
A year later, Rakuten Fits Me user conversion rates were still triple and some months even quadruple to non-user conversions. Additionally, analytics show that Fit Origin has delivered an impressive +20.4% in incremental revenue to Rhone’s website. This is a natural testament to the confidence Fit Origin gives shoppers to convert and buy with the brand. Not only do conversions increase, Rakuten Fits Me’s solutions have been proven to increase average order size – rather than having to buy two of the same item in different sizes (with the knowledge they’d have to return one), shoppers can simply buy more.
Rhone is now upgrading to Fits Me’s new Fit Match solution.
This Company Spotlight was produced by InternetRetailing and sponsored by Rakuten Fits Me. Funding articles in this way allows us to explore topics and present relevant services and information that we believe our readers will find of interest.
