Details matter when it comes to fashion
True Fit, an intelligent data platform for apparel and footwear, helps users find clothes and shoes they will both love and keep. Romney Evans, Co-Founder, True Fit speaks to Fibre2Fashion about the technology, its advantages, on-boarding process and cost.
What is the USP of your sizing technology? How is it different?
True Fit is an intelligent data platform for apparel and footwear. True Fit's unique advantage is its differentiated and highly connected data set that is the backbone of the entire suite of personalisation solutions. Details matter when it comes to fashion, and thus, True Fit organised the largest connected data set for apparel and footwear in the world, mapping the relationship and rich attributes for over 11,000 brands, 400 million consumers, and 60 million registered users via $100 billion transactions across its network. With this unique data set, True Fit powers a full suite of personalisation capabilities that can personalise style, fit, and size for every user at every point of their journey-from awareness to consideration and purchase, to service and loyalty. True Fit's core capabilities around discovery and confidence help users find clothes and shoes they'll both love and keep.
Where does it work best: in-store, kiosks, web, app?
True Fit's technology is optimised to work across retailers' e-commerce platforms, and is accessible on a variety of devices, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. In today's global apparel and footwear market, some 80 per cent of purchases still occur in-store. However, 67 per cent of instore purchases are influenced by what shoppers see first on the web. In 2017, we announced a partnership with Tulip Retail to help improve the in-store shopping experience. By integrating True Fit's fit and style recommendations into Tulip's platform, sales associates can access a personalised, curated catalog of items for every shopper. As a result, store associates are able to confidently show customers how well each item is expected to fit, making every sales associate a personal shopper and fit expert.
What technology do you use to provide sizing & fitting solutions?
True Fit's style, size and fit recommendations are powered by our award-winning Confidence Engine, which provides free size and fit advice for all shoppers, without the need to create a personal profile. We know that simplistic size calculators and generic size charts don't provide consumers with an accurate representation of how an item will fit. True Fit employs a variety of machine learning and AI approaches to deliver its solution. Ultimately, the big differentiator is its unique data set-the genome for footwear and apparel.
How easy is it to meld with the other softwares or ERP systems being used?
True Fit integrates easily with any platform and system. Given our robust client base of both new and legacy retailers, we've had to integrate with every possible platform and system. Front-end integration requires a little script to be inserted into the template of the site, while backend integration requires a few different data feeds to allow True Fit's machine learning and AI engines to learn the unique patterns of each retailers' products and consumers: (i) catalog feed-similar to what every retailer provides to an affiliate marketing site, helps True Fit's systems understand which styles are live at any given time; (ii) transaction feed (weekly)-this feed is anonymised of any customer data. It helps True Fit understand the relationships of different products to different consumers.
Does it work for: men / women / children?
True Fit's technology provides size and fit recommendations for men, women and children.
It also works for consumers who are shopping for others, whereby a consumer can create a subprofile for somebody else in their household and easily toggle between viewing recommendations for themselves or for another. This allows consumers to buy and gift clothes and shoes for others with confidence, eliminating the guesswork and friction of shopping for others.
What is the on-boarding process like?
True Fit typically gets customers up and running in a matter of weeks. We have a world class delivery team that kicks off the project with each retailer and provides white-glove service for getting the scripts properly inserted into templates, configuring the UX to match the retailer's style guides, and assisting teams with data feeds.
Who are your major clients?
True Fit has a presence on over 200 major global retail sites. Our clients span from Ralph Lauren to Clarks to Macy's. In addition to driving net incremental revenue, reducing returns is one of the top value propositions for our clients. Our team of analysts examine data patterns, like which items are being returned the most frequently, which shopper "types" are most likely to return, and feed that insight back to retailers. This helps our clients make better products, streamline their inventory, adjust marketing tactics, and so on.
What are the minimum and maximum sizes that it caters to across the above three segments?
There are no size limitations for True Fit's technology when shopping for men's and women's items. For True Fit's Kids solution, sizing and fit recommendations are available for retailers that sell items in footwear sizes 4C to 7Y and apparel items 2T to 20. It is designed to work for all size systems available at the retailers that have integrated it.
For which body type is it most suited: Indian, American, European, or any other?
True Fit's technology is nationality agnostic, providing appropriate size and style recommendations for all body types. There is an element of psychology that comes into play when a shopper's traditional size does not fit, which often affects the way people perceive themselves. Ultimately, this translates to how they feel about brands, making True Fit's mission even more important-we help all shoppers feel confident.
What is the cost of installing your technology?
True Fit is based on a SaaS delivery model and costs a flat monthly rate for unlimited retailer use. The monthly fee is established based on the value True Fit will drive for the retailer. Results are monitored and tracked each week/month, and are reviewed regularly with the client. True Fit has been rigorously AB tested by the world's leading retailers and independent third parties, and routinely delivers 10X or higher ROI, and 4-8 per cent net incremental revenue lift by increasing conversion rates and decreasing returns.
How many registered users do you have? What is the nature of feedback that you take to help finetune your app/solution?
True Fit currently has more than 60 million registered users around the world, and that number continues to grow. Our network of users represents the largest universal cohort of digital apparel and footwear shoppers across major retailers and brands. True Fit's technology empowers consumers to shop more confidently and find the right styles when shopping online. True Fit learns by customer inputs, as well as from purchase and returns data that help signal which items customers ultimately bought and kept.
