True Fit: Big Data For Big Results

By Hannah Ash, contributing writer

Finding the right size for clothing has long been a problem for shoppers, so when it comes to buying clothing, brick-and-mortar stores retain a real advantage over online retailers. One company, however, is trying to empower online shoppers to find great fitting clothing regardless of whether they can touch and feel a garment or not: True Fit launched in 2012 to work with retailers as a way to leverage big data for big customer results.

True Fit works by offering retailers a way to give their customers a better fit. One of the company’s major product offerings is a tool that asks customers a series of targeted questions about their body sizes and shapes and then provides style and fit recommendations based on the customers’ personal answers alongside the ‘big data’ answers from other customers who have answered similar questions. It’s a new way to use big data for retailers and leading brands, including Joe’s Jeans and Nordstrom have signed on to offer this option to their e-commerce customers. True Fit encourages repeat customers, as the service continuously learns more about customers’ individual preferences and offers more specialized recommendations to drive sales.

CEO Romney Evens says his service functions similarly to Pandora radio, stating that fit is ‘subjective’ and that by “multiple data points Truefit gets better and better. Just like Pandora, it takes a series of ‘thumbs down’ clicks for the service to get it right.” According to the True Fit website, Joe’s Jeans chief executive officer Marc Crossman says everyone should have True Fit. Karem Tomak, the vice president of analytics at Macys.com, previously stated that big data helped boost sales by ten percent. Clearly, this is an example of the potential power big data will bring to retail — when it finds the right fit.