Hassle-free returns come at a cost but have never been more in vogue than in the current covid-19 era, for both footwear retailers and shoppers. Technology providers are working hard to ease the burden by improving consumers’ chances of choosing the right size from the outset.

National lockdowns have left many physical shops shuttered around the world, leading to a rise in augmented reality (AR)-enabled virtual try-ons and other forms of technology-forward, digital interactions. Out of necessity, adoption of e-commerce (especially m-commerce or mobile shopping) has accelerated because of the pandemic. Retailers that are abreast of this trend are keen to boost profitable customer engagement with products ahead of purchase – not only to drive conversion, but also to mitigate against ever-escalating online return rates.

In a report released last June, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) estimated that 14% of consumers in the US and 17% in China had bought fashion (at all price points) online for the first time due to covid-19’s devastating impact on the global physical retail landscape in the first half of last year. By December, however, BCG partner, managing director and global head of luxury, Sarah Willersdorf, estimated that three-quarters of customer service calls to luxury brands, alone, were motivated by returns (or delivery) queries.

Prone to returns

Prior to the surge in online shopping prompted by the pandemic, online sales amounted to some $427 billion in 2019, and returns were $41 billion, of which footwear and apparel accounted for 28% according to a report by Appriss Retail, a returns fraud detection service. Also in 2019, CEO and co-founder of returns management enterprise Happy Returns, David Sobie, suggested that online shoppers return around 15-40% of their purchases on average, compared to approximately 5-10% of merchandise purchased in-store. While apparel bought online is especially prone to returns, according to GlobalWebIndex data, owing to some e-commerce shoppers’ practice of ‘bracketing’ (ordering the same item in multiple sizes, only to return those pieces that don’t fit), footwear does not fall far from the clothing tree.

As pointed out to World Footwear by VP of measurement projects at Zozo (the parent company behind Zozotown, Japan’s leading online fashion retailer), Takayasu Yamada, the inability to try on footwear prior to purchase makes buying – and selling – footwear online “exceptionally challenging”. Mr Yamada views bracketing as unsustainable for e-retailers such as Zozotown, which he says is particularly committed to solving sizing-related shopping problems for its customers, in order to keep product returns low. (Zozo independently measures all units purchased from suppliers, for example, which enables Zozotown to make sizing recommendations to its Japan-based shoppers with a greater degree of confidence.)

Welcome mat

The company’s foot measuring Zozomat device, a printed mat released exclusively via Zozotown in June 2019, is a testament to this. Designed to solve the sizing-related challenges posed by purchasing footwear online, including returns, roughly 1.4 million Zozomats had been distributed throughout Japan as of last November. First conceived as Bluetooth-enabled “smart socks” with woven sensors, Zozo later found a printed mat to be more “accurate” and “cost-effective”.

Over 1.3 million people have so far scanned their feet using the Zozomat and its linked Zozotown app, which wirelessly supports and records the foot-measuring process. Data collected from these foot scans has subsequently been used to support the sizing recommendation of “well over 1,000” shoe models sold by the company, with this figure expected to “continue to rise substantially”. It can even can even map what an “average” Japanese foot looks like mathematically based on the scan data, which can then be used by footwear brands to design better-fitting products for the Japanese market, Mr Yamada says.

In comparison to non-Zozomat-compatible shoes, the return rate for Zozomat-compatible footwear is 36.9% less. What is more, the company has been able to track that around 25% of customers who have purchased footwear after scanning their feet using the mat are first-time shoe buyers on Zozotown, suggesting a keen appetite in Japan, at least, for technology-driven home body-measuring devices.

Accurate and complete

US-based Aetrex, which describes itself as the global leader in foot-scanning technology and orthotics, but also specialises in comfort shoes, today sees that around 57% of its sales come from its technology and orthotics divisions combined. Its latest foot-scanning device, Albert 2, is set to launch in stores across North America in February. Covid or no covid, Albert 2 is primarily designed to help retailers “solve today’s challenges” by providing in-store customers with “accurate and complete” foot information (including 3D sizing and pressure underfoot data) in 20 seconds or less, CEO of Aetrex, Larry Schwartz, tells World Footwear. Servicing remotely and helping to reduce returns through finding the right fit “on the first try” are all central components to this ambitious plan.

When World Footwear spoke to Mr Schwartz in late 2020, Aetrex was in the middle of updating its mobile app, in order to achieve “an at-home experience in line with Albert 2”. Currently, its mobile technology can capture foot size measurements, but it is unable to read customers’ pressure underfoot as they would experience when stepping onto an Albert 2 device in a physical store, Mr Schwartz says. (To Albert 2’s in-store users, Aetrex supplies its proprietary, artificial intelligence [AI]-enabled FitHQ technology, which allows customers to access their unique 3D footprint data from any digital device and shop their “best fitting” Aetrex orthotic or other footwear by brand, style and size.)

BCG predicts that consumers will be choosier about when they shop, what they shop for and how much they spend going forward, as a direct consequence of the coronavirus crisis, with digital channels in key markets making up a larger proportion of total sales. How retailers and digital disruptors respond to these shifts, both during and post covid-19, will map their rise or fall. Returns – an inevitable, innate part of shopping – will not be eliminated, but retailers who put their best (home-friendly) tech forward can make returns less of a problem.

The look of Aetrex’s Albert 2 is partly inspired by Apple’s aesthetic, which Mr Schwartz considers to be the “gold standard” in design. 

Credit: Aetrex 

Share this story: