4 ms·
I get this feeling that clothing is THE consumer product but nobody buys clothes online because: 1) sizing is screwy 2) it's impossibly kludgy to browse cloth
by oldgregg 18y ago
I get this feeling that clothing is THE consumer product but nobody buys clothes online because:
1) sizing is screwy
2) it's impossibly kludgy to browse clothing, textures, etc.
3) a painful return process
SO, I'm waiting for a department store with:
1) ONE pair of each item
2) ZERO inventory,
3) With all that additional space, a MASSIVE selection
3) Everything gets shipped straight to your home.
When you walk into the store they measure you, scan your credit card, and hand you a barcode scanner. Scan what you want and the perfectly sized clothing shows up on your doorstep in a day or two.
Nice side effects:
1) No more fear because it's easy to take back to the store if you don't like it.
2) For all the people that don't live in NYC or LA there would finally be a store with a decent selection...
3) Few clothing stores actually track purchases-- finally, you could now have a killer recommendation system that people would actually trust.
Solves so many problems (and probably creates a few). It kind of reminds me of Service Merchandise back in the day where they only had one item out front and everything else in the warehouse-- except now the warehouse is in "the cloud" so to speak.
...I already do this at Barnes & Noble-- browse for what I want and I've already Amazon Prime'd the book before I walk out the door...
Beyond the obvious technical challenges to me the biggest question is whether the economics of it works when you individually ship everything from a central location.
- timclark 18y agoMy wife buys 90% of her clothing online from shops in Europe and the USA. The key to making the experience work for her is that she only uses shops with sensible returns policies.
- browser411 18y agoDisagree that no one buys clothing online. It's a massive industry. Agree that the process is broken. I know someone who orders multiple sizes and colors of a single item and returns most of it after trying it all on. Lot of obvious inefficiency here. I wonder how much a place like zappos (great return policy) pays for all the returns at the end of the day. I know shoes aren't clothes strictly speaking but it suffers from similar issues.