The Role of Virtual Dressing Room Technology in Sustainability

Online shopping has transformed the way consumers engage with fashion, offering unparalleled convenience and variety. Yet, this convenience has come with a cost for brands: a surge in returns. Shoppers order multiple items, try them on at home, and return the rest. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 17.6% of merchandise purchased online—amounting to $247 billion—was returned in 2023.

In this article, we explore the return problem in fashion and its environmental implications. We’ll also dive into how virtual dressing room technology can reshape the shopping experience, reduce returns, and pave the way for a more sustainable fashion industry.

The Environmental Cost of Fashion Returns

Returns are a major challenge for the fashion industry. Beyond being an inconvenient task for both companies and consumers, product returns have a massive environmental impact and drive substantial financial losses for brands. The extra miles traveled for shipping returned goods and the inability to process these returns quickly—especially in fast fashion—often mean that items cannot be resold within a viable timeframe.

Simultaneously, customer demand for sustainable business practices is growing, placing significant pressure on the fashion industry to address its high return rates. To meet these expectations, fashion retailers must explore ways to adopt sustainable practices and reduce returns—beginning with innovative solutions like virtual try-on technology.

Virtual Dressing Room Technology: Bridging Fashion Retail and Sustainability

The leading reasons for online apparel returns over the past year were issues with size or fit (53%), color discrepancies (16%), and damaged items (10%). With incorrect sizing being the leading reason for returns, it’s clear that customers struggle with picturing how the products will suit them.
Virtual try-on technology addresses this issue by empowering customers to visualize how clothes will fit and look on their unique body types before they make a purchase. By reducing the guesswork, online clothes fitting technology helps shoppers make more informed decisions. This not only boosts customer confidence, but also mitigates the need for ordering multiple sizes or styles to “try on” and return later.

How Looklet’s Online Clothes Fitting Technology Leads the Way

Looklet is at the forefront of virtual dressing room technology, offering solutions that combine visual accuracy with operational efficiency. Through our innovative solution, brands can deliver dynamic, personalized shopping experiences that reduce returns and improve sustainability metrics. Our online clothes fitting technology can be seamlessly integrated into your website or mobile platform.
Sustainability is no longer just a corporate responsibility—it’s a consumer demand. Virtual fitting room technology allows companies to meet these expectations while providing a superior shopping experience.

Curious About Our Game-Changing Virtual Try-On Technology?

Discover how Looklet’s virtual fitting room technology can decrease returns, reduce waste, and promote sustainability. Also, keep your eyes out for our next article on virtual try-on technology, where we deep dive into the opportunities it can open up for retailers with a walk-through of use cases.

If you wish to learn more or have any questions about our virtual dressing room technology solution, feel free to reach out to us through the ‘Contact Us’ form at the bottom of this page!

Sources:

NRF LINK
CORESIGHT LINK