[vaksel]

not having to drive to the store is huge

on Amazon you just search, compare, read reviews and click buy.

with brick and mortar stores, you have to drive to the store, park, then roam the store to find what you are looking for, then hope that they have it in stock before you buy, then drive back home. Even a small purchase ends up costing you an hour of your time.

and for large purchases almost always you have to wait 20-30 for the store associate to bring out what you want to buy...and you have to deal with a sales pitch for an extended warranty

[cglace]

Maybe for electronics but for clothes I don't mind driving to the store. Trying stuff on till I find what works. Asking knowledgeable staff for suggestions/opinions.

I think I've had one positive result from buying clothes online.

[GFischer]

I have an idea for a side project/startup tackling that problem.

What's your main problem? Finding out how it would look on you? How it feels/quality? What are the suggestions and opinions you look for?

Thanks :)

[cglace]

All of the above are problems.

Huge problem is fit. Especially pants. So many things can go wrong. Too tight in the thighs, pants run short, pants are tighter than usual in the hips, weird fit in the butt, etc. . .

Feel/quality is a big one for me personally because I have some hangups with textures. If something has a certain feel it makes my skin crawl.

As for suggestions and opinions, I'm usually looking for advice, make sure I'm not committing any faux pas with my choices. For example, when buying some leather shoes I may want something that can be worn with jeans or with slacks if needed. If the sales associate is knowledgeable I will probably go with something I initially was tentative about or didn't consider.

Hope that helps.

[GFischer]

It does :) . Thank you ! As soon as I have an MVP I'll post it here on Hacker News :) .

[BHSPitMonkey]

Send out measuring tapes for free to customers (like Square's credit card readers). The tapes will be branded with your logo/URL. You let users store their exact measurements on their profile, and your company takes care of the rest (building an online catalog of well-photographed stock, all of which your team has gathered samples of and tested for exact measurements.

[michaelt]

I ordered some jeans online, taking measurements from another pair of jeans. In fact I aggregated together measurements of my body, measurements of my existing pairs of jeans, and sizes from the labels of my existing pairs of jeans.

The first pair that came were too short, and a bit big at the waist; the company agreed to swap them for a shorter pair (but I had to pay to ship the old pair back to them). I couldn't tell if going to a two-inch-smaller waist would mean an uncomfortably tight waist, so I didn't ask them to send me a pair with a smaller waist. The fit is now at best acceptable.

I could have been more stubborn about it and done more exchanges until I was happier with the fit, but that would have meant more inconvenience - and the expense of shipping them back again. Had I been buying at a shop I could have tried on a whole bunch of pairs of jeans, and I think I'd be happier with the overall fit.

For comparison, I have successfully brought sneakers, t-shirts and sweaters online so I'm no stranger to shopping for clothes online.