Reducing returns by understanding size and fit

What is shaping fashion

Fashion and apparel brands need to read trends early, get fit and size right and turn browsing into buying across stores and e-commerce.

• Trends travel quickly through social media
• Fit and size issues drive returns
• Online shoppers need confidence before buying

An online fashion brand, working in India, UAE & United Kingdom. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

An online fashion brand

Sector

Fashion

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Consumer panel, Quantitative research, Qualitative research

More than a third of the brand’s online orders were being returned, mostly because of size and fit, and return costs were wiping out margins. Customers in India, the UAE and the UK had different body proportions and expectations, but the brand used the same size chart everywhere.

• Deliver on the brief: reducing returns by understanding size and fit.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of buyers.
• Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 8 weeks.

The work focused on 2,000 buyers.

• buyers2,000

Audiences we typically reach in fashion

Fashion shoppersOnline buyersStore staffStylists and influencersWholesale buyers

Coverage: India, UAE & United Kingdom. Markets: India, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.

• India
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom

A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Survey of recent buyers
3. 3Fit sessions
4. 4Returns data analysis
5. 5Insight

We analysed returns data by product, size and market, then surveyed recent buyers about how they chose sizes, which measurements they knew and what went wrong. In fit sessions, participants tried on core styles in two sizes while researchers recorded measurements and fit comments. Sessions included a range of body types and were conducted in English and Hindi.

Consumer panelQuantitative researchQualitative research

buyers

2,000

• Business respondents were screened on role, company size and involvement in the decision before being invited.
• Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
• Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.

fit sessions

60

• The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
• Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.

• Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
• Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
• Review of open-ended answers
• Recordings and transcripts for every session
• Re-screening of qualitative recruits
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
• Journey and decision mapping

• Customers relied on their usual size from other brands and rarely used the size chart, and some styles ran small around the shoulders and hips.

People choose sizes by habit, so guidance must start from what they already know.

• The brand introduced a fit-finder asking for familiar brands and sizes, adjusted patterns for its best-selling styles and added fit notes from real customers.
• Share the findings with the teams closest to customers so they can act quickly.

What we recommended, and the client put into practice

• Returns for those styles fell noticeably.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interview summaries and key verbatims

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: why are returns high?