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I never quite understood why you don't get more detailed measurements for clothes when shopping online. If I knew those I could easily filter out most of the re

I never quite understood why you don't get more detailed measurements for clothes when shopping online. If I knew those I could easily filter out most of the returns right away. If I knew, say, how broad the back of a jacket really is, that would be tremendously helpful as I have a rather broad back and lots of jackets that otherwise fit are too narrow there. I get that is additional effort but wouldn't providing those still be cheaper than all those returns?

stickfigure 3y ago
I'm in the print-on-demand business. The listings we generate always include a size chart. My observation is that almost nobody ever looks at them. For whatever reason, people just assume "I'm a S" or "I'm a L" and borderline cases search reviews for "it runs small" or "it runs large". Women's sizes are sometimes numbered (because, of course, women only vary on a single dimension).
jeromegv 3y ago
Depends on turnover of inventory. If you get new styles every single week because you are into fast fashion, photos are already a big burden so imagine having very precise measurements. Especially when you know customers typically don't read. It's just not good ROI for a product that might just last a few weeks online. You'd have to show that products with very precise measurements have a substantial lower return rate, which I don't think you can.
krisoft 3y ago
> I get that is additional effort but wouldn't providing those still be cheaper than all those returns? Maybe. I suspect many garment are not manufactured to really tight tolerances. Once I found a perfectly fitting trouser at a brick-and-mortar shop. It was so good that I thought I will buy two of the same size right away. Turns out the second was much larger than the first even though according to the label they should have been the same. So yes, it shouldn't be much extra effort to measure one of each size of each new model. But if you have to measure every single garment that can become a nightmare. And I don't know how much would it cost to tighten up the tolerances in their manufacturing. Besides I wouldn't know how to measure my own back precisely. Probably a tailor would know a standardised way to measure it but that is not something you can assume your costumers will know. And if the shop is measuring the backs of their jackets differently than the costumers do they will still get returns. Of course they can choose to not accept them, but who would buy from such a shop?
rurp 3y ago
My impression is that product details are a mess across a whole lot of fields. Most search filter results are very rough, with many results that don't match the filters at all, and matching items buried or excluded. Amazon is the worst at this but other third party seller platforms struggle in this area as well. I suspect the platforms have decided that it's not worth the trouble to wrangle a large number of sellers into maintaining accurate and consistent product listings.

stickfigure 3y ago

I'm in the print-on-demand business. The listings we generate always include a size chart. My observation is that almost nobody ever looks at them. For whatever reason, people just assume "I'm a S" or "I'm a L" and borderline cases search reviews for "it runs small" or "it runs large". Women's sizes are sometimes numbered (because, of course, women only vary on a single dimension).

jeromegv 3y ago

Depends on turnover of inventory. If you get new styles every single week because you are into fast fashion, photos are already a big burden so imagine having very precise measurements. Especially when you know customers typically don't read. It's just not good ROI for a product that might just last a few weeks online. You'd have to show that products with very precise measurements have a substantial lower return rate, which I don't think you can.

krisoft 3y ago

> I get that is additional effort but wouldn't providing those still be cheaper than all those returns? Maybe. I suspect many garment are not manufactured to really tight tolerances. Once I found a perfectly fitting trouser at a brick-and-mortar shop. It was so good that I thought I will buy two of the same size right away. Turns out the second was much larger than the first even though according to the label they should have been the same. So yes, it shouldn't be much extra effort to measure one of each size of each new model. But if you have to measure every single garment that can become a nightmare. And I don't know how much would it cost to tighten up the tolerances in their manufacturing. Besides I wouldn't know how to measure my own back precisely. Probably a tailor would know a standardised way to measure it but that is not something you can assume your costumers will know. And if the shop is measuring the backs of their jackets differently than the costumers do they will still get returns. Of course they can choose to not accept them, but who would buy from such a shop?

rurp 3y ago

My impression is that product details are a mess across a whole lot of fields. Most search filter results are very rough, with many results that don't match the filters at all, and matching items buried or excluded. Amazon is the worst at this but other third party seller platforms struggle in this area as well. I suspect the platforms have decided that it's not worth the trouble to wrangle a large number of sellers into maintaining accurate and consistent product listings.