High returns, rising transport and handling costs as well as increasing pressure to lower the carbon footprint lead many organizations to have to find new ways to tackle these issues. In the past years, several AI-based tools have developed to tackle these issues for the footwear market.
When it comes to choosing an online foot measurement software, there are many factors to consider. Currently, there are four companies that can be taken serious in this market in terms of technology, data, and customers. We will be comparing Strutfit, Volumental, Footprint Technologies and Shoefitr.io.
Please take the following points into consideration when evaluating the go-to-tool with your E-Commerce Team.
Conversion or Recommendation
Accuracy
Source of shoe data
Payment model
Location of the company
Languages available and translation quality
Ease of use
Recommendation Quality
Financial and partner backing of the company
Test it!
Now, let’s jump into the details.
Conversion or Recommendation
There is a difference of using such a tool to just to improve your conversion or to actually reduce returns. The latter is what really matters when it comes to making a change in terms of returns, making your business more profitable, and by doing that, saving the planet CO2.
If you want to boost sales, not knowing how many returns you will get and not really giving your customer a benefit, you may want to choose the conversion path.
Accuracy
Are you in the running, climbing, performance, hiking or barefoot space? Your customers will want accuracy from such a tool, which means an approved and certified measurement process that is reproducible.
Source of shoe data
This is one of the most varying points amongst the different players. There are three approaches:
Matching against size table (Strutfit, Shoefitr.io)
Description: Database is built by using public size table of the manufacturer
Advantages
- Easy access to data
Disadvantages
- 56% of all shoe models deviate significantly from the manufacturer tables
- Different sizing systems (EU, UK, US, Mondopoint systems) are not 1:1 transferable into each other, so every conversion from one size table into another is even worsening the outcome.
- Significant size jumps regularly happen within one shoe model cannot be considered when matching with a standard size table.
Real dimension table (Footprint Technologies)
In this case, the database is built with the exact inner shoe dimensions of the manufacturer (based on shoe lasts)
Advantages
- In combination with Realtime Measuring only approach that enables truly precise matching
- Collaboration with manufacturers provides insights, about which SKUs are based on the same lasts
- Highest possible customer satisfaction and greatest possible reduction in returns
Disadvantages
- Higher initial effort to onboard a new brand with their data (one-time effort)
- Cooperation with manufacturers required to keep database update effort low, requires good customer success and trust building
Guessing by number of returns (Volumental)
Volumental takes a unique approach by measuring against the sizing table recommendation and the mobiel measurement and then calculating on an algorhythm on how many shoes would fit/ be returned based on the first orders of a shoe model.
Advantages
- Quickly implemented
Disadvantages
- Not based on real foot data of customers
- Takes at least 20 to 30 orders to deliver acceptable recommendation quality.
- Knowledge which SKUs are sharing the same last data is not available
Payment model
The payment models of the above-mentioned players are often not communicated clearly. They can range from a monthly fix price to a price per recommendation or a percentage of the revenue when a size is successfully recommended. A fair contract offers you the option to quit if you are not satisfied with the results.
Location of the company
When choosing your partner, consider which data rules and which place of court is the right one for you to choose. Is the software GDPR conform and are European rules met?
Strutfit is based in New Zealand, Volumental in Sweden, Shoefitr.io in the Netherlands and Footprint Technologies in Germany.
Languages available and translation quality
Please make sure to let your local native teams check the translation quality of the available tools. They range from perfect to being poor and giving the user a bad impression of the service. High-quality translations are cross-checked by a native speaker and are not just randomly generated by Google Translate or similar services.
Ease of use
This should be a no-brainer. But when it comes to getting the tools to work, there are huge differences.
How is the process for the end-user?
How is it integrated into your shop?
Which data from your shop is being provided access to?
Just a few questions you and your team should consider.
Recommendation Quality
How error-prone is the measurement– – process. Is it stable and reliable? You can easily test it, if several individuals are measuring 10x in a row – do you get the same result every time? (If you receive a 50%-50% distribution of two shoe sizes, it might be, that your feet have a size, that is directly at the border between both, so check with several individuals.)
Finally, does the recommended size really feel like a great fit? Some of the providers (like Footprint Technologies) also offer Try-on-Tests for Quality Assurance, to test and refine their recommendation parameters accordingly.
Financial and partner backing of the company
Which customers is the company working with already?
Who are their investors?
Is the company independent?
How are your competitors handled within the company?
Test it!
Finally, there is to say that you should test the tools. This may be a no-brainer but testing them in your team with various people will make your decision a lot easier.
We hope this was helpful. Please get in touch in case you have any questions! Thank you.