CASE STUDY

 

Perfit

 

A personalized clothing avatar that creates a more sensory experience for online shopping.

Consumers are more likely to return goods purchased online than items purchased at brick-and-mortar locations. In fact, online return rates are 7%-22% greater than in-store return rates. Considering that e-commerce transactions have tripled in the last decade—and that only 11% of shoppers are satisfied with every purchase—that’s a lot of merchandise returns.

What is it about the physical store experience that provides satisfaction? Is there a way to replicate that in an online environment?

Timeline: 32 Weeks

The Process

Discover

We spoke with 250+ online and in-store shoppers to uncover the essential components of an ideal shopping experience. Overall, shoppers said they prefer the sensory experience that comes with in-store shopping—the ability to touch, feel, see, hear, etc. We postulated that if we could simulate that sensory experience in an online environment, we could increase the percentage of customers who are satisfied with the first shipment.

Create

Our team partnered with Tesseract Center for Immersive Environments and Game Design to prototype a custom avatar experience that allows users to “see” how clothing fits before they purchase. By simulating portions of the in-store experience, we aspired to build a digital product that would increase shopper confidence and reduce the overall volume of returns.

Launch

Currently on the third version of our prototype, we are exploring integration with multiple retail partners. The product may exist as an add-on or plug-in available for retailers to purchase and incorporate into their existing websites; we are also exploring a standalone app option that curates retail partners and allows users to shop via a unified experience. Ultimately, user data will inform the direction of future growth.

The Team

Monica Sewell,

Supply Chain Management and Marketing, Junior

Chris Enslin

Industrial Engineering, Sophomore

Chris Orellana

Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Freshman

Annelise Koster

Finance, Freshman

Sean Fischer-Reagan

Marketing and German, Junior

Haven Brown

Computer Science, Junior

Julio Nolasco

Computer Science, Sophomore

Partners/Mentors

 

Jonathan Phares, PhD Student, Supply Chain