Apparel Retailers Need This Before They Need Virtual Dressing Room

How do online shoppers know what will fit?

If virtual dressing room is not on your radar, as an apparel retailer, they ought to be. For over a decade these online tools have been giving shoppers the ability to try on clothes virtually instead of physically as the adoption of fit technology has grown. From size recommendations to body scanners to 3D simulations, the array of technological options is staggering. But there is a catch. That’s a lot of data to add to a legacy system.

Metadata + Customers = Sales

Every pair of pants, for instance, is a piece of data in your inventory. Every product description is metadata, information about those pants. When someone is shopping online, that metadata is reassuring. It gives the customer confidence about what is being put in the virtual shopping cart. The more information you can give, the less likely there will be a disappointment when actually getting that product. If the shopper knows what the pants are made of, how to care for them, even where they were made, that shopper feels informed.

Virtual dressing rooms and their ilk give the shopper far more information than was ever possible apart from actually trying on all those clothes in person and reading the tags. Adding interactive mirrors and suggestions for coordinating products is like having a knowledgeable salesperson handing you things to try on. The metadata about those pants is usually what will determine the sale and it has to be accurate and updated immediately if something changes. A person who is allergic to polyester gets upset when the all-cotton pants they thought were being ordered turn out to be a blend because something changed.

Data Infrastructure Creates Your Virtual Dressing Room Foundation

The best way to deal with data is by having a good software platform that can act as a foundational data infrastructure to build upon. The ChainDrive Integrated Retail Management software provides a centralized database and professional support so that foundational data infrastructure is solid. From that foundation, ChainDrive Apparel adds smart product assortment, intelligent allocation, product analysis, automated replenishment, performance & product management, and much more. The software is customizable for unique applications and the professional support is available 24/7. ChainDrive Apparel gives you the foundation you need to build your retail business for the future, no matter what the future holds.