The worldwide virtual fitting room industry is expected to expand by 6.5 million dollars by 2025, according to a recent study from Valuates Reports.
The surge in online shopping is propelling the virtual fitting room market size, with new technologies aiming to reduce exchange and return rates while improving customers’ online shopping experience.
A virtual fitting room is a sort of technology that allows customers to digitally try on clothing.
Customers may digitally try on apparel or cosmetic goods without physically touching them. The item is placed over live imagery of the buyer using augmented reality (AR) or artificial intelligence (AI) technology, allowing them to verify the size, style, and fit of a product they are considering purchasing.
Walmart recently purchased Zeekit, a virtual dressing room business that allows buyers to examine how items fit on body types similar to their own.
Zeekit is a successful start-up that provides a new and more interactive buying experience for the fashion industry. Yael Vizel, Nir Appleboim, and Alon Kristal established Zeekit in 2014. The founders of the firm had the notion to apply their considerable military experience in creating real-time image processing technologies, computer vision, deep learning, and artificial intelligence to the world of fashion. Walmart purchased Zeekit in 2021.
How does virtual fitting room technology work?
The majority of virtual fitting rooms use augmented reality. A camera scans a person’s body in this scenario to build a 360-degree 3D representation.
Artificial intelligence is used in other virtual fitting rooms. AI, like augmented reality, takes body measurements and creates full-body 3D models of the consumer standing in front of the camera using algorithms and machine learning.
The scanned goods are superimposed on the shopper’s 3D model using virtual reality technology. They can see how they appear wearing an item without having to physically try it on.
The advantages of virtual fitting rooms are listed below,
Support online sales:
Retailers may use this to their advantage by installing virtual mirrors in their physical establishments. There’s no reason to give up precious store space for changing rooms. Instead, use that area to display inventory and create visual merchandising displays.
Convenience:
It is inconvenient to choose the proper clothes size from the rack, walk over to a real changing room, and switch their apparel. Virtual fitting rooms, on the other hand, take care of everything. Customers may stroll over to a virtual mirror and view how the outfit looks on them without changing.
Make ties with customers:
For most merchants, consumer loyalty is a long-term aim. To establish long-term connections with customers, you must first engage with them through a variety of buying experiences.
Virtual fitting rooms help with this approach, allowing buyers to virtually try on products in the comfort of their own home or in the centre of a secure retail location solves a significant problem for them.
Reduce return rates:
According to media statistics, 30 per cent of ecommerce returns occur because the size is too tiny. Another 22 per cent occur as a result of the buyer ordering the item in an incorrect size. Offering an online fitting room helps to alleviate this issue.
Every coin has two sides, and virtual fitting rooms are no exception. Customers can still physically touch clothes, there is scepticism about virtual products looking the same, and the technology can appear difficult.