The Feasibility of Virtual Fitting Room in the Fashion Industry - Literature review Example

Fashion retail The Feasibility of Virtual Fitting Room in the Fashion Industry Background/Introduction Fashion retail is a core part of marketing in the modern fashion industry. This happens as every fashion store deals with high-quality clothes. Engaging in proper marketing, therefore, becomes a principal way of attracting consumers. This technology has become an essential part of every modern business. This trend emanates from the habits of consumers, who are used to convenience in their daily lives. As individuals demand relative ease in their daily hustles, businesses have to adjust to this general temperament. Technology, in the modern day business, transcends the use of online retail stores towards the use of mobile applications and sophisticated software. It is arguable that the virtual fitting room application is highly feasible in contemporary fashion business. Online shopping The advent of fashion stores helped transform shopping, as customers would acquire access to products without visiting physical stores. These stores provide applications for carts and financial transaction. Online shopping has recently developed thereby threatening to replace traditional shopping in real shops. Some shoppers, however, still prefer real sopping to online shopping for notable cited reasons. To begin with, there are serious security concerns, as fraudsters establish sites for conning consumers. In addition, there are grave technical difficulties that some customers face while making transactions. For instance, remembering passwords is often one of the major technical issues that customers face. Virtual fitting room In spite of the online shopping development in fashion marketing, the issue of size and measure remains a great hindrance to online shopping. It is essential to highlight that size and fit are rarely standard across all brands. This leads to a significant amount of product returns thereby hindering sales and creating extra costs for retailers. The use of augmented reality directly solves this problem, as consumers superimpose images of clothes onto themselves (Batista, 2013). In this sense, it completes the trend of online shopping as customers attain the similar experience just as they attain in physical stores without having to visit actual stores. Feasibility issues Globalization entails convergent tastes. This happens as individuals witness the consumer developments of other nations. In the emergent world, television helped transmit images of given cultural consumptions across the world. In spite of the television as a tremendous development, buying across borders was a difficult feat since there was limited medium through which foreign purchases could be facilitated. The internet has aided the rise of blogs, websites, and online version of stores. This promotes the desire for goods that are in other country. It is essential to highlight this factor as great enhancer of world fashion trends. For instance, the skinny jeans among men are worn across the world. Most men are able to watch such trends from online fashion magazines such as the GQ and blogs, therefore, promoting the desire to wear clothing produced from different countries. The virtual fitting room will be a development of globalized fashion business whereby potential buyers can test out clothes from other countries. In this sense, the online fitting room application directly compliments the psyche of the globalized consumer. It is crucial to highlight that in as much as consumers may be enthused by clothes from countries other than their own, they need the platform to assure them that such clothes are real and attainable. The virtual fitting room provides them ultimate platform for accessing foreign clothing since it ensures that a customer purchases the right size. In most cases, different countries have different connotations to sizes they assign to clothes. In this perspective, it becomes distrustful to believe in assigned sizes while making cross-country purchases. The virtual fitting room application solves this problem since it allows the size-conscious consumer to assess the fittingness of any clothing item (Begole, 2009). Globalization and the rise of the internet have produced consumers who are highly informed. This happens as they explore the internet, through their smartphones, for product information and market trends. Such consumers have networks and connections that enable them ongoing in the fashion industry. Besides, through considerable information they are able to predict trends. In turn, consumers take high charge of their shopping experience, as stores become agents for directly satisfying the needs of customers (Pereira, Silva, &, Alves, 2011). In turn, the store has to develop an intricate relationship with the consumer towards satisfying consumers’ needs. This trend eliminates the need for customer care staff, who usually guide customers on issues of fit and measure. The virtual fitting room is a significant way of letting the customer take control of one’s shopping experience. In the age of smart phones, mobile versions of the virtual fitting room can make a huge financial access. It is crucial to assess such an issue from the viewpoint of the mobile application retailers and distributors who would be interested in dealing with an industry as large fashion. Mobile applications are becoming everyday phenomena of the everyday life, as they are applicable in many day-to-day activities. Unlike complicated demands, mobile applications can easily satisfy the needs of fashion enthusiasts. This happens because fashion needs, such as purchases, are direct. Smart phones allow possess sophisticated cameras that can allow a buyer to witness oneself effectively. Such a platform would create an opportunity for mobile application creators to produce sophisticated products for the fashion audience. It is crucial to emphasize that competition sets the path for quality production, which will further enhance the consumers’ experience. This suggests that continuous production of mobile applications will help modify the original productions towards providing better buying experiences. The creativity in the mobile application industry is a great testament of the survival potential of such a tool. In technological innovation, there is an inherent desire to cut down on costs of production. This happens as the larger businesses enjoy impressive economies of scale at the expense of the smaller firms’ growth. Over time, the costs that the large firms use in comparison to their profits are negligible This is unlike the smaller firms, which face capital impediments as they try to harness every resource towards production. The internet has solved this problem as fashion houses can open online stores without having the physical versions. It is easy to set up and establish online stores since it is less costly to set up websites. Such stores are taking advantage of the cheapening internet costs and the relative ease in hiring competent software developers. The virtual fitting room is an extension of this new capability. In this sense, it complements the efforts towards use of limited capital in opening stores. In e-commerce, consumers usually cater for the shipment costs of the product they purchase. Similarly, the consumers will cater for efforts and costs of setting up virtual fitting rooms. Besides, there would be mild costs of setting up virtual fitting room applications in computers and smart phones (Pachoulakis & Kapetanakis, 2012). The virtual fitting room will also incur limited costs because it eliminates the necessity for customer care employees, who require significant compensation for their work. In physical stores, the customer care staff is indispensible since they guide customers on issues such as the nature of fabrics and the sizes of clothes. The success story of fashion houses such as Tommy Hilfiger proves that this application can be a huge success. Tommy Hilfiger has a large brand that enables it market the virtual fitting room development to all consumers. Tommy Hilfiger, however, has proved that the virtual fitting room application is as functional as it is aesthetic. Tommy Hilfiger uses the clotheshorse software that employs algorithm regarding questions about body measurements. This application also traces previous purchases towards recommending the best size for a given consumer. The company also employs the UPcload software, which scans an individuals’ body and develops a 3-D template of one’s body. This software also scans the data bases of other consumers towards recommending the best size and fit for a person. It is notable, however, that ardent fashion lovers are trudging towards bespoke. In this perspective, it has become fashionable to revert to classic and vintage clothing. In the broad sense, bespoke transcends the art of vintage dressing. It entails wearing clothes that are customized according to customers’ needs. This poses notable problems. To begin with, consumers are highly likely to be visiting tailors in the future rather than visiting online stores. This happens as consumers become bored with the technological world and pursue the traditional feeling of making purchases. In addition, it will cut down on purchase rates of mass-customized clothes that are popular in online stores. Since bespoke training relies on mouth-to-mouth marketing and exclusivity, it will provide a different experience than the virtual fitting room. It is crucial to emphasize that individuals who love consumption are usually drawn to the real-time experience of shopping that may entail touching clothes and feeling their fabric. Such an experience is unattainable from the virtual fitting room whereby customers do not witness real clothes. The inherent psychology of ardent fashion lovers lies in acquiring rare and unattainable things. Since technology will become easily available, more fashion lovers may switch towards vintage clothing and vintage shopping styles. In turn, applications such as the virtual fitting room would not be applicable in cases where consumers make one-one-one interactions with tailors. This would be a significant problem with the older generation members who are less attached to technological staff. Since the older consumers may become fixated with traditional ways of making purchases, online stores may only cater for the younger generation. This poses the problem of revenue streams, as younger people are highly likely to be unemployed. In close relation to this notion, the virtual fitting rooms eliminate the traditional experience of shopping. Over time, fashion-marketing researchers have uncovered that customers are majorly drawn to the innuendos of physical stores. In the end, the interior design of physical stores and the natural displays of clothes serve a huge role in attracting customers. It is crucial to highlight that due to this ability, customers, sometimes, buy products that they did not plan for their purchases. In turn, a customer may easily buy a product that one tries on physically. This is unlike the virtual fitting rooms that may not instill this experience in customers. Besides, the enthusiasm of a virtual fitting room may easily disappear since it does not entail a physical experience. The virtual fitting room is a tool that only relies on sight, but not the physical feel of clothes for drawing enthusiasm in making purchases. In addition, the virtual fitting rooms may become less applicable in global purchases. Customers, sometimes, visit online stores and browse for products that they do not have any particular intention of purchasing. In essence, customers may use online stores to ogle at their fantasy products and look for similar versions in physical stores. This occurs since the cause of shipment is high when making global purchases. This might be a great downfall for the virtual fitting, as customers may actually use such tools for fulfilling their fantasies rather than for making real purchases. In this sense, only a small part of the population would be using such an instrument for its intended purpose. The virtual fitting room requires a tracking tool that verifies whether customers are using such a tool for purchases. The virtual fitting room poses a great ethical issue of creating unemployment. In the new business scenario of corporate ethics, businesses have a wide role beyond profits. This means taking care of the welfare of the society besides the primary concern of profits. Recently, countries have been facing high unemployment rates due to the recent globalization. In turn, there is a critical need to stir economies through employment. This is because employment help raise the standards of living in a society as individuals attain the income necessary for purchasing power. On the other hand, the virtual fitting rooms eliminate the need for staff who may guide customers on issues of size and fit. When the shopping experience becomes individualized, fashion stores are highly likely to let go of excess staff. Conclusion Internet retailing is a contemporary concept with considerable advantages. It enables consumers conduct shopping without the actual need to visit stores. In this development, providing consumers with right fitting clothes is a top concern of fashion stores. The virtual fitting room satisfies the conspicuous void of fit and measure guides. Research shows that reluctance by consumers to purchase products online emanate from the fact that they are skeptic of clothes’ measurements. In addition, it compliments a world whereby consumers require individualized shopping and significant information before making purchases. This application will eliminate excess costs for fashion stores in terms of staff requirements and the need to open physical stores. In spite of few setbacks such as the bespoke trends, the virtual fitting room application completes the cycle of online fashion retailing. Reference Batista, L. (2013). New business models enabled by digital technologies. Retrieved from http://www.nemode.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/BATISTA-case-study-in-the-fashion-sector-FINAL-Report.pdf. Begole, et al. (2009). Designed to fit: challenges of interaction design for clothes fitting room technologies. Human-Computer Interaction, 5613:448–457. Pachoulakis, I., & Kapetanakis, K. (2012). Augmented reality platforms for virtual fitting rooms. The International Journal of Multimedia & Its Applications, 4(4): 35-44. Pereira, F., Silva, C., &, Alves, M. (2011). Virtual fitting room: augmented reality techniques for e-Commerce. Centeris, 220: 62-71. Read More