Akshat Agarwal’s Post

One of the biggest issues for any fashion brand operating online is size exchange. Customers can't try the product to see how it fits on them. They go by the size they usually wear and if it doesn't fit them, they ask the brand to exchange/return which eats into the bottomline for brands because of shipping fees for return and reshipment. One thing brands and marketplaces do to reduce size issues is to provide detailed size chart with every product so that buyers can check the measurements and order accordingly. But still brands and marketplaces which have free no questions asked exchange policies get an average 15-20% returns (out of which 10-12% can be accounted to size and fit issues). This happens because even though customers are provided with detailed size charts, they tend to order the 'alphabetical size' they usually wear. For example: If I usually wear a 'Large', I will order a 'Large'. But measurements of 'Large' vary from brand to brand hence size issues happen. Often customers blame this on the correctness of size chart and claim that the product is not true to the dimensions provided. Throughout last 2.5 years we tried multiple ways to fix this - providing detailed dimensions, how to measure size guide etc. But this year when we started taking orders for customised tees/hoodies where we send them size chart via DM and ask them to select size from it, we realised the problem is simply customers not spending enough time to check the size chart or giving it a real thought. Here's what the numbers told us: 1. Orders with no size issues - 99.53% 2. Orders with genuine size issues - 0.41% 3. Orders with manufacturing defect in product - 0.06% And when you think about it - when customers are provided free no questions asked exchange even for a INR 200 product by marketplaces, why would they bother spending time checking the size chart! For our website orders we make sure to provide enough nudge to the customer so they are thorough in checking the size chart and for CoD orders even take size confirmation on call. Exchanges are still there, but significantly less compared to what we see on marketplaces. For online fashion to be truly sustainable and not just brands burning money to woo the customers, it has to be a 2-way street where customers become considerate enough to understand the losses brands face for excessive exchanges/returns. #ecommerce #founderjourney #entrepreneurialjourney #brandbuilding

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