[ericabiz]

I agree with you that perfect sizing is the future of fashion retail--especially online. However, I completely disagree with your methodology.

This demographic is going to be won over by marketing, and you didn't have the correct marketing play in hand when you ran this survey. I'm going to give you an example:

If you ask people: "When shopping for clothes on the web, would you submit your email address if...?"

Most people would probably say no. "Submitting your email address" sounds like you're about to "submit to" a bunch of junk email!

However, if you ask them if they want a perfect fit (you'll probably need a better way of saying this than you have right now--you'll want to do demographic research to find out how high-income women actually would articulate this), you can find a demographic that will say "yes". As a bonus, you'll have the lingo they use and be more easily able to sell to them because you are speaking their language.

tl;dr: Given the word choices and copy you could have used, "submit your body measurements" was almost guaranteed to bust, but it doesn't mean you have the wrong idea. It just means you have the wrong way of saying that idea in a way that appeals to your market.

[tarr11]

"perfect fit" may be less of an issue than you think for high end fashion. If you asked them if they have trouble finding the perfect fit, I wonder what they would say. A lot of these women wear things like Lululemon, which fits really well, and makes their butt look good.

They don't necessarily wear high end fashion (heels, skirts, whatever) because it "fits". They wear it because they like how it looks, how it makes them feel, etc.

My wife is an independent high end fashion designer. Working on fit is incredibly hard and specialized, from a product and marketing perspective. Good patterns are the fashion equivalent of good software. They take a long time to get right and require a lot of work. They also don't necessarily translate to an online experience that well, for several reasons.

Any business in this space needs to overcome them:

High end designers usually target particular body types, and then market specifically to that group.

I worked on a project for Levi's in the 90s for getting the perfect fit for jeans. We had laser cutters, 3D body scanners, and more.

It failed. Getting the right fit wasn't a just a matter of measurements. It was a manufacturing issue too.

Even two garments that have the same measurements may not fit exactly the same because of manufacturing issues, fabric tolerances, even customer perception.

When a customer tries a garment on, it can stretch, alter or rip. So if they don't purchase it, the second person trying it on may not have the same experience.

A garment that "fits" someone may not actually look good, depending on their body type.

High end customers also have expectations of being able to return anything, for any reason (think of how Nordstrom's handles this for example) These things can really hurt margins.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I'm a little puzzled by the "perfect fit" thing myself. In college I worked for a men's specialty clothing store in NYC. All the expensive stuff (IOW, most of what they sold) was adjusted by the in-house tailors. You'd buy something off the rack, and then be immediately taken to someone who would take your measurements and take it in/let it out to get a good fit.

Doesn't this kind of thing happen anymore?

D

[alanctgardner2]

Even cheap stuff looks better if you get it altered, but yeah; the price-point this guy is targeting doesn't really wear 'off-the-rack' clothes. I wonder if he did any research at all, or he just thought "People with lots of money will pay lots of money for clothes". They shop pretty much entirely differently than your average (or even above average) consumer.

[BSousa]

It is the difference between buying a shirt or suit (for men) that comes in Small/Medium/Large and buying one that is designed for a certain body type (broad shoulders, slim waist or short but fit) initial design. You can alter both, but a design that is more specific than S/M/L will usually look alot better after altering than a generic one.

I have both range of suits, and I can say there is a world of difference, even after altering between high end suits in fit than generic ones.

A very specific example a couple years ago when I got married, I ended up buying a really nice suit. That year trend by brand: Zegna suits were usually designed for the average man (height/weight), Ralph Lauren for more short guys and Armani for tall slimmer folk. As far as I've remember buying a suit, RL suits were always the better fit before and after alterations since I'm short, specially their more italian line that goes for short/broader shoulder/slim men.

[ijk]

To add to this, different market segments have different priorities. I once saw it explained with food. "Did you get enough to eat?", "Did you like how it tasted?", "Was the presentation good?"--these are very different questions, and the perfect restaurant for one person is not the same as the perfect restaurant for someone else. Knowing what your customers actually care about is the first step in selling to them.

[jamesaguilar]

More to the point, nicer clothes typically end up getting tailored before being worn anyway.

[ssharp]

> I agree with you that perfect sizing is the future of fashion retail--especially online.

This assumes we don't go through another 90's-era fashion trend where very baggy clothes were extremely popular. Who cares if something is a perfect fit if it's going to be parachuting all over the place? Currently, trim fits are very much in style and require more precise sizing, but that's not guaranteed to remain the trend.

With some clothes, suits for example, you could argue that a custom fit will always be in style, but I'm not sure if that's enough evidence to support a blanket statement that the future of online fashion retail is custom sizing.

(Warning, I'm coming entirely from a male-perspective and do realize that women's fashion tends to require more precise sizing and is also a substantially larger market.)

[asciimo]

I don't think you should massage your sample into giving you an acceptable answer. No matter how you shuffle the words around, it comes down to the blunt action of "submitting your email address" or "submitting your body measurements." If your target demographic is repulsed by the bare truth, you have to decide whether it's worth combating this reality with a "market play." It might be better to change your target demographic, or your product.

[mynewwork]

But people will say and do different things substantially by how it is presented. "Would you carry around a device that lets a company track your location 24/7?" will get people to answer "no" who have a cell phone in their pocket. If you had asked the general population 10 years ago if they would give a company a list of all their friends, their hobbies/interests/religion/political beliefs and all their photos they would have shouted no, of course not, but they do that with facebook today.