Imagine you sell one hundred beautiful shirts online today, but forty of them come right back to you next week.
This is a real nightmare for many people who sell clothes on the internet. When you sell items online, you want them to stay sold. But right now, so many clothes are sent back. Shoppers open their boxes, try on the clothes, and decide they do not like how they look. This costs you a lot of time and money.
If you run a store online, there is a very smart way to fix this problem. You can use a virtual try on tool. This is a new type of computer magic that lets your shoppers see how clothes look on their own bodies before they buy. In this very detailed guide, you will learn exactly how to use these tools to make your store better, stop losing money, and make your shoppers very happy.
The Big Problem: Too Many Clothes Come Back
Selling clothes online is fun, but it is also hard. When you have a physical store, people can walk into a changing room. They take a shirt, put it on, look in the mirror, and know if it fits. Online, they cannot do this. Because of this, ecommerce returns have become a huge problem for store owners all over the world.
Why Do People Send Clothes Back?
People send clothes back for many reasons. Here are the top three reasons why shoppers return what they buy:
First, the size is wrong. A shopper might think they need a large shirt, but when it arrives, it fits like a medium. Every clothing brand makes their sizes a little bit different. This confuses the people buying your items.
Second, the color looks different in person. A dress might look bright red on a computer screen, but when it arrives in the mail, it looks dark red or even orange.
Third, the style just does not look right on them. A jacket might look amazing on the tall, thin model in your photos. But when a shopper puts it on at home, they do not like how it fits their own body shape.
When people cannot try on clothes online, they often buy two or three sizes of the same item. They plan to keep the one that fits and send the rest back. This is terrible for your business.
How Returns Hurt Your Store
When a shopper sends an item back, it hurts your business in many ways. It is not just about giving the money back.
First, you lose the money you paid to ship the item to them. Sometimes, you also have to pay to ship the item back. Second, when the clothes come back, your workers have to open the box, check the clothes, fold them again, and put them back on the shelf. This takes a lot of time.
Third, sometimes the clothes come back dirty or torn. You cannot sell a dirty shirt as a new shirt. You have to throw it away or sell it for a very low price. All of these things take money right out of your pocket.
Quote: "Online returns are like a hidden tax on your store. If you do not stop them, they will eat all your profits."
What is a Virtual Try On?
You might be asking, what exactly is a virtual try on? It is a smart tool that uses a computer to show a person what clothes will look like on their own body.
Imagine having a magic mirror on your phone or computer. You do not have to change your clothes. You just look at the screen, and the screen shows you wearing a new dress or a new suit. This is what this tool does for your shoppers.
The Magic of an Online Fitting Room
An online fitting room brings the store to the shopper's house. To use it, a shopper just uploads a simple picture of themselves. Then, they pick a piece of clothing from your store.
The smart computer tool takes the picture of the clothes and puts it perfectly on the picture of the shopper. It knows where the shoulders are, where the waist is, and how the fabric should fall. The shopper can see themselves wearing the clothes in just a few seconds.
If you want to see how this amazing tool works, you can check out a real virtual try on to see the magic for yourself. It is very easy to use and looks incredibly real.
How Augmented Reality Shopping Works
Sometimes, people call this augmented reality shopping, or AR try on for short. Augmented reality means adding something fake but realistic to the real world.
With an AR try on, the computer understands the real world. It knows that a person has curves and shapes. It makes the digital clothes wrap around those shapes. It makes the light and shadows match. It makes the cloth look like real cloth, not just a flat sticker on a picture.
This helps people in the textile industry show off the real beauty of their fabrics. Your shoppers can see if a heavy wool coat looks bulky, or if a light silk dress looks smooth and flowing.
Why You Need a Virtual Fitting Room Now
If you want your store to grow, you need to add a virtual fitting room today. It is not just a fun toy. It is a very important tool for your business. Let us look at exactly why you need it.
Stopping Ecommerce Returns
The biggest reason to use this tool is to stop ecommerce returns. When shoppers can see how clothes look on their own bodies, they make much better choices.
They will not buy a shirt that looks bad with their skin color. They will not buy a dress that looks bad on their body shape. They will know exactly what they are getting before they pay.
Fact: The National Retail Federation (NRF) says that in 2023, people sent back over 17% of all things bought online. For clothes, this number is often much higher, sometimes up to 30%.
When you let people try on clothes online, that big number drops down. You keep more of the money you make, and you stop wasting time unpacking boxes of returned clothes.
Making Shoppers Happy
Shopping should be a fun time. But when people have to guess if clothes will fit, it is stressful. They worry about spending their money. They worry about the hassle of going to the post office to send things back.
When you give them a virtual wardrobe, shopping becomes a joy again. They can spend hours mixing and matching shirts and pants on your website. They can see themselves in clothes they might never try on in real life.
Happy shoppers buy more things. They tell their friends about your cool website. They come back again and again because they trust that what they buy will look good.
Helping the Earth
Sending clothes back and forth in trucks and airplanes is very bad for our planet. It creates a lot of dirty air and pollution.
Also, many returned clothes do not go back on the store shelf. Because they are too hard to clean and repack, many big brands just throw returned clothes into the trash. Huge piles of perfectly good clothes end up in landfills.
By using an online fitting room, you help stop this waste. You only ship the clothes that people actually want to keep. This makes your business greener and much better for the earth.
Setting Up Your WooCommerce Store
If you use WordPress to run your website, you probably use WooCommerce. It is a very popular way to build an online store. It is easy to use and very flexible.
If you are a WooCommerce store owner, setting up an AR try on is very simple. Let us go through the steps.
Finding the Right WooCommerce Plugin
In WooCommerce, you add new features to your store by using little bits of software called plugins. You need to find a good woocommerce plugin that connects your store to an AI tool.
You do not need to build the computer magic yourself. You just need to connect your store to a smart system like The Textile AI. Their tools are made to help people in the textile industry show off their clothes beautifully.
You can look at their AI Tool page to learn about all the different features they offer. You want a plugin that is fast, safe, and does not make your website slow down.
Adding the Tool to Your Shop
Once you find the right tool, adding it is easy.
First, you will need to create an account. You can easily do this by going to the login page. After you log in, you will get a special key or code.
Next, you go to your WooCommerce dashboard. You upload the plugin and paste your special code. This connects your store to the AI brain.
If you ever get stuck or do not know what to click, you do not have to worry. You can always read the easy guides on the docs page. These guides show you where to click with easy pictures and simple words.
Testing How People Try On Clothes Online
Before you tell all your customers about the new tool, you must test it yourself.
Go to your website as if you are a shopper. Click on a dress or a shirt. Look for the new button that says "Try it on." Upload a picture of yourself. See how fast the picture loads. See if the clothes look real.
Tip: Ask your friends and family to test your site too. Ask them if they found the button easily. Ask them if they liked the pictures. Make sure everything works perfectly before you show it to the world.
Setting Up Your Magento Ecommerce Store
Some store owners use a different system called Magento. Magento ecommerce is built for very large stores. If you sell thousands of different shirts, dresses, and pants, Magento is very strong and can handle it all.
Why Magento Ecommerce Needs AI
Because Magento stores are so big, the problem of ecommerce returns is also very big. If you sell ten thousand items a month, and thirty percent come back, you are dealing with three thousand returns! That is a huge headache.
Big stores need strong tools. Adding a virtual fitting room to your Magento store can save you thousands of dollars a week. It also helps your large catalog of clothes look modern and exciting to shoppers.
Steps to Add AR Try On to Magento
Adding this tool to Magento takes a few more steps than WooCommerce, but it is very worth it.
First, you will need to choose a plan that fits a big store. You can check out the pricing page to find a plan that works for how many shoppers visit your site.
Next, your web builder will use special computer codes to connect the AI tool to your Magento store. Because Magento is very flexible, you can put the "Try On" button exactly where you want it. You can make it big and bold right next to the "Add to Cart" button.
Building a Virtual Wardrobe for Magento Users
One amazing thing you can do for Magento shoppers is let them build a virtual wardrobe.
When a shopper creates an account on your big store, they can save their photo. Every time they come back, they do not have to upload their photo again. They can just browse your huge store and click "Try On" on anything they like.
They can save pictures of themselves wearing different outfits to their account. They can build a whole closet of dream clothes on your website. This makes them want to visit your store every day, just to play with clothes and see what looks good!
How AI Tools Fix Textile Industry Problems
The virtual try on tool is part of a much bigger change happening in the world of making and selling clothes. The whole textile industry is using AI to fix old problems. Let us look at how these smart tools help people who make clothes.
From Fabric to a Finished Look
In the past, if a cloth maker designed a new pattern for a fabric, they had to print the cloth, cut it, sew it into a dress, put it on a model, and take a picture. This took weeks of hard work.
Now, with smart tools, this takes minutes. You can take a simple picture of a flat piece of fabric and use a computer to turn it into a realistic picture of a finished dress or shirt.
If you make your own clothes to sell online, you will love this. You can learn how to do this by visiting the fabric to product page. You can also see another great example on the fabric to garment page. These tools turn flat cloth into 3D clothing instantly.
Making Catalogs Fast
If you sell clothes online, you know that taking pictures of every item takes a very long time. You have to hire models, find a bright room, set up big lights, and hire a person with a fancy camera.
With AI, you can make your whole catalog online using a computer. You just tell the computer what the clothes look like, and it creates perfect pictures of models wearing them.
You can find out how to build a whole store full of pictures quickly by using the catalog tools. This saves you so much money on photo shoots. If you want to see how beautiful these computer pictures can look, just take a peek at the gallery. The images look so real, you will not believe a computer made them.
Fun Events and Matching Outfits
Another wonderful way to use these tools is for special holidays. People love buying clothes for fun events.
For example, think about Valentine's Day. People want to look nice for their dates. With your new tools, you can create a special shopping page just for this holiday. You can learn more about making holiday pages at the event link.
You can even set up a fun Valentine page where couples can try on matching outfits. They can upload a picture of both of them and see how they look together! You can watch a neat video about how to do this right here: watch matching outfits. This is a very fun way to get people excited to buy your clothes.
Tips to Make Shoppers Love the Tool
Just putting a virtual fitting room on your website is not enough. You have to make sure your shoppers actually use it. If they do not use it, you will still have a lot of ecommerce returns. Here are some simple tips to make sure everyone loves your new tool.
Keep It Simple and Fast
No one likes to wait. If a shopper clicks the button to try on a shirt, and the screen loads for two minutes, they will leave your website. They will go shop somewhere else.
Make sure your tool is very fast. The picture should show up in just a few seconds. Also, keep the rules simple. Do not make the shopper fill out a long form to use the tool. Just ask them for one photo, and that is it.
Remember: A fast website makes more money than a slow website. Always pick tools that load quickly.
Show Them How to Use It
Some shoppers might be confused when they see a new button on your site. They might not know what an AR try on is.
You should write a small, easy guide on your website. Use simple words. Tell them:
- Click the button.
- Upload a clear picture of yourself looking straight ahead.
- See how great you look!
You can also write articles about your new tool to help them understand. You can put these articles in your blog section. If you want to read great examples of helpful articles, visit the blogs page.
Use Great Pictures
For the computer magic to work best, the starting pictures of your clothes need to be very good. If you upload a blurry picture of a sweater, the computer will put a blurry sweater on the shopper.
Make sure your store photos are bright and clear. Show the clothes on a plain background, like a white wall. This makes it very easy for the computer to cut out the clothes and put them on your shopper perfectly.
Note: Good lighting is the secret to good AI. The brighter and clearer your photos are, the better the final result will be for your customer.
The Future of Clothes Shopping
The way we buy clothes is changing very fast. Soon, nobody will want to buy clothes online without seeing them on their own body first. If you set up an online fitting room now, you will be ahead of the competition.
Better AR Try On Tools
Every year, these computer tools get smarter. Right now, they can show you how a shirt fits on your chest and shoulders. In the future, they will be able to show you exactly how the fabric moves when you walk or dance.
They will understand how soft or stiff a fabric is. They will be able to show a shopper exactly where a pair of pants might feel tight. As these tools get better, ecommerce returns will keep going down. The stores that use these tools will become very rich, while the stores that refuse to use them will slowly fade away.
Smart Tools for Store Owners
Store owners will also get smarter tools. You will be able to look at your computer and see exactly what styles people are trying on the most.
If you see that one thousand people used the virtual wardrobe to try on a blue jacket, but only ten people bought it, you will know something is wrong. Maybe the price is too high. Maybe the jacket looks too dark on the body. This information helps you make smart choices about what clothes to sell in your store next month.
Final Thoughts on Stopping Returns
Returns are the worst part of selling clothes online. They drain your energy, they waste your money, and they are bad for the environment. But you do not have to just accept them as a normal part of business anymore.
By adding a virtual try on tool to your WooCommerce or Magento store, you give your shoppers a gift. You give them the gift of certainty. You let them know that the clothes they buy will make them look good and feel good.
Take Action Today
Do not wait until next year to fix your returns problem. Every day you wait is another day of lost money and unhappy shoppers.
Look into adding a woocommerce plugin or updating your magento ecommerce store today. Explore the tools we talked about. Try them out for yourself. See how fun it is to try on clothes online.
When you make shopping fun, easy, and safe, your business will grow. Your shoppers will thank you, your workers will thank you for fewer boxes to unpack, and your bank account will grow bigger. Step into the future of the textile industry today, and say goodbye to those huge piles of returned clothes!
