The connected fitting room: a new lease of life for stores

To breathe new life into the in-store customer experience, brands have thrown themselves into smart fitting rooms. The stakes are high when you consider that more than 60% of fitting room visits end in a purchase.

The fitting room experience reinvented

Fitting rooms play a key role in the purchase journey. The closer they are to the tills, the more they encourage people to buy. They also make up for the garment sizing problem shoppers run into when they move from one brand to another. Above all, shoppers use fitting rooms to check their usual size in a retail chain they do not shop at regularly.

The problem: only 18% of in-store shoppers dare to venture into a cubicle. And there is no shortage of things putting them off: long waits, cramped spaces, unflattering lighting, a trip back to the rails to find another size to try on, getting undressed all over again…

It is a headache for the sales team too. While shoppers are in the fitting room, the stock is tied up and, even though only a limited number of items is allowed in at a time, they can spend a while in there. It is a logistical drag as well, when sales assistants have to follow on behind them to put the items back on the rails.

Shoppers come away feeling it has been a waste of time and a frustration if the item is not right for them. Sales assistants cannot make the most of their advisory role if they lose time managing the cubicles. That is why retail chains are setting out to turn their conventional fitting rooms into interactive spaces. The kit varies: interactive mirrors, product recognition through RFID tagging, virtual try-on, adjustable lighting… The connected fitting room is becoming a genuine go-between for the shopper and the sales assistant.

Purchase journeys are being rethought, shoppers get a fresh shopping experience and the sales rate can be expected to climb again. But are these fitting rooms 2.0 really the definitive answer to the new in-store customer experience?

What future for the smart fitting room?

The point of offering connected fitting rooms is above all to make the most of shoppers' time: cutting the wait for a cubicle and letting them get more out of the services available in store. For sales teams, it builds a new kind of closeness with shoppers, and the sales assistant's role is renewed.

But there can be drawbacks too, because, depending on the brand, customers are not necessarily comfortable with digital devices in store without a human to help them. On top of that, according to an iVend Retail study, only 24% of customers would be in favour of connected fitting rooms. That figure is worth taking seriously when you know that some sales assistants go so far as to unplug the connected mirrors already installed in certain chains on busy days, so as to cut the time shoppers spend in the cubicles.

Is this technology really the answer to offer retail customers? If the fitting room is simply a way for the shopper and the sales assistant to talk to one another, is the shopping experience genuinely any better?

Innovation can be redefined to free fitting rooms once and for all from every queuing and size-checking problem, and to reimagine them as a tool that lets the shopper concentrate on their look. So it is fair to wonder what the future of this innovation will be. Will it win consumers over as thoroughly as it has won over the industry? In putting this idea of a new digital experience back at the heart of store strategy, the role of sales assistants is decisive. How can it be improved for the long term?

Anticipating needs to improve the experience

To stop fitting rooms being monopolised by shoppers hunting for their ideal size, and to offer those shoppers a new kind of buying experience, at Fitizzy we have developed an in-store digital tool that helps them find the right garment size out on the shop floor. This innovation grew out of one striking finding: 81% of buyers say that information seen on a digital device guided their purchase. Thanks to our Fitiroom and our mobile app, which scans barcodes, shoppers no longer have to get undressed. We recommend the ideal size for their body shape, in just a few seconds.

A new in-store tool that has already proved its worth. In a study carried out on a sample of 200 people when our product launched, 94% of visitors found the Fitiroom useful. 88% of them said that the size recommendation encouraged them to go ahead and buy. And finally, 76% of our panel said that the service improved the image they had of the brand. What is more, the store team sees real added value for sales: “At peak times, the Fitiroom strengthens our ability to meet the expectations of every visitor” confirms the Store Manager of Brice at V2.

Would you like to digitalise your purchase journeys?

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