Features, STARTUPS

Contactless shoe fitting for everyone

For retailers worldwide, return of goods bought in online stores has become a real headache. The problem is most acute in the fashion segment where goods returns in European stores reach 70%. In Russia, the problem is present too. Data Insight, the first Russian research agency specializing in e-commerce market, claims that a third of Russian retailers find return of the goods the most complex logistics process. Buying well-fitting shoes online is especially difficult. The solution to the problem of shoes return is offered by startups which come up with a virtual fitting service. More so, they promise to teach online stores to pick up comfortable shoes for the buyers upfront.

I decided to scale up my shoes’ success. Drawing by Yuri Aratovsky

Home shopping

The founders of Imigize startup from St Petersburg, got the idea of developing a virtual fitting technology by a pure accident. Vremena Goda Prestige, a group of companies they own, for a long time manufactured customized souvenirs, including leather souvenirs. At some point, it was decided to pay attention to shoes and clothing, since there appeared to be a sizeable demand for them in Russia’s regions.

We had customers, well established business contacts and foreign suppliers. So we decide to start a large-scale and interesting business”, Valery Chernik, Imigize Development Group CEO, says.

The company confronted an unforeseen challenge, though. Unlike expensive souvenirs, clothing and footware production is not sufficiently customized since it can not take into account every fantasy of a customer.

Ultimately, we realized that it is impossible to manufacture and supply cloths and shoes which can fit our customers perfectly well”, Mikhail Chernick, Imigize Development Group Chief Commercial Officer, explains.

The company was certainly aware of the Bespoke custom-made shoemaking technology. More so, the business owners personally contacted the manufacturers who use such a technology, Silvano Lattanzi, for example, whose clients include George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Gere and even Russian President Vladimir Putin. It soon became clear through that such a technology can hardly be used, since it is very expensive and extends the production time significantly.

Meanwhile, Imigize is certain that modern 3D modeling and scanning technologies can ensure top comfort to customers even in a mass production segment. Theoretically, such technologies allow a customer to get footware which ideally matches one’s feet by length, width, instep, circumference, etc.

Scan it

In the present-day market, there are lots of projects offering contactless shoe-fitting services when a shoe imagery projection is matched to a customer’s foot projection. Still, the most such a solution can do is sizing up the style-wise implementation, since that solution, even coupled with the shoes size information, can not allow projecting comfortability.

Imigize proposes a different approach of measuring the interior volume of the already manufactured shoes. The data is then compared to a 3D foot pattern, to then judge if the particular footware fits the customer.

By matching customer’s 3D feet patterns with footware 3D interior volumes, our fitting algorithm gives, via the online shop widget, a high-precision recommendation which footware will fit this particular customer best. More so, it can assess the degree of comfort the particular shows will provide”, Valery Chernik says.

It is suggested the foot samples are produced by means of laser scanners which may be installed in stores or pick-up points. Mobile applications allowing to produce a foot sample on the basis of photos made from different angles, may also be used.

Interior volume measurement happened to be more problematic. It appears manufacturers could supply whatever data, including the dimensions of shoe lasts. Still, they are reluctant to share such information. To measure shoes, Imigize employs several technologies of nondestructive process control, including tomographic imaging. The company also employs some shoe testers. The fitting results are added to a computer algorithm which uses neural networks for footware selection and recommendation. The recommendations are quite accurate. Initially, accuracy was at about 30%, now, it is close to 90% as compared to the physical fitting.

As Valery Chernik puts it, “We employ innovation technologies which were developed recently and used for nondestructive process control in aviation and microelectronics industries”. According to him, that allows producing a comprehensive 3D interior volume sample.

In St Petersburg Imigize has launched an interior volume 3D measurement center capable of processing up to a million pairs of footware a year. The business owners have invested in the project over $2 mio.

At the center, measurements are made at a conveyor line, while the interior volume 3D samples configuration is fully automated”, Imigize explains. “That guarantees high speed and low cost of the operations”.

Fitting fair

Imigize is not the only startup which develops contactless shoe fitting technologies. Fitanny is a startup which in 2013 and 2014 was awarded Skolkovo Innovation Center grants, the last one amounting RUR 15 mio ($400 K). Now, Vladimir Abramov, Fitanny founder, is the owner of Integro Group which is, among other things, a customized footware maker trading under the brand name Your Shoes.

Contactless clothing fitting service transformed into Try.Fit startup launched by Vagan Martirosyan. Last spring, 1C invested in the startup € 250 K. Before that, the project was supported by business angel Dmitry Sinitsin and Pulsar VC foundation. Try.Fit produces 3D patterns of the footware and feet which allows to find the best fit. The market pioneer abroad was startup ShoeFitr, purchased by Amazon back in 2015. Currently, Mifitto is active in the market offering a technology to scan shoes in closed boxes.

The interest technology startups and investors have towards this segment, is quite understandable, since a successful solution will generate demand of both the footware manufacturers and the e-commerce market players.

It is interesting, it is cool, it attracts people, so I am certain the trends in our market will follow those in the US. The trend will further advance and the demand for such developments will keep growing”, marketing consultant Maria Solodar believes.

For footware sellers, such services can evidently reduce overhead expenses.

Contactless fitting may influence prices in online shops as their logistics costs may nosedive”, Roman Alekhin, founder of Ortho Doctor, agrees.

Besides, online stores may see their revenues grow. If buyers get a convenient contactless fitting instrument, they will augment their spendings. A remote fitting technology may stimulate the shift of traditional shoppers to online stores.

Footware manufacturers and retailers are interested in these technologies. Mifitto, for example, has launched over 30 projects for German retailers and manufacturers, about as many in Austria and 5 more in the US. In Russia, Imigize is now implementing a shoe measuring project jointly with Wildberries online store and RunLab sports shoes shop.

Real obstacles

Contactless clothing and footware fitting projects development is clearly due to people’s unwillingness to visit stores and their desire to be able to try cloths without the need to leave their homes, Business Development Director Alexander Larionov of VRTech says. True, today such projects face multiple restraints. The imperfect computer vision is one of them. Besides, for the system to work properly, it should be educated which requires a large scale data selection.

According to Larionov, “To adequately recognize the image and dimensional parameters of a person and to allow the fitting comparable to real life, the system needs high quality elaboration”.

Ultimately, it’s all about buyer psychology. Regretfully, a buyer is not homo economicus, but an ordinary human being, hence that buyer is not yet ready to use technologies in a given context, Daria Yadernaya, CEO of Y Consulting explains. It should also be remembered that most of active shoppers in Russia are aged between 35 and 60. Not all of them are happy with the idea of replacing a shop assistant or a customary shopping process with technology based selection, analysis and fitting.

Such technologies have good prospects with the younger generations and in light of an accelerating speed of living. Still, it’s doubtful they may dominate the market in the near future”, Yadernaya states.

She cites an example of e-readers which have been in the market for quite a lengthy time but by now have not replaced paper books.

In technical terms, the solution will be operational, but it will not be of interest to women”, Dmitry Chidirov, ED Retail Store Solutions CEO, believes. “Women will always prefer good-looking to good-fitting”.

By Olga Blinova

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