A VIU of Online Shopping

How many times for the past 2 weeks have you shopped online? How many deliveries have you received in a week from your online shopping? Once a week? Twice a week? Or every day? Since C-19, many of us shop online but I bet we all have different experiences.

I’m starting a series of survey to better understand online shopping elements, discover the pros and cons and what companies can do to enhance online shopping experience. The survey contains four straight forward questions for simplicity and brevity. Based on the responses from family and friends, the results are…as expected.

What Do You Buy Online Nowadays?

There are about 12- 24 million e-commerce website across the entire globe, according to WordPress Forms. This number continues to grow every single day. Based on Statista‘s latest report, in 2018, fashion e-commerce accounted for 20 percent of total fashion retail sales in the United States. The top segment of e-commerce is the online retail sector which is dominated by consumer electronics, apparel and accessories (source: Chron.com).

It is not a surprise to see Apparel and Electronics also rank the top 2 in this survey for the most popular items purchased online. Since the beginning of internet based e-commerce 26 years ago, it has made a significant impact in our daily life. Many businesses that operate on brick and mortar solely found themselves falling behind the curve and cannot compete with those who have incorporated e-commerce as part of their business operation model. Lately, with COVID-19, the effect was even amplified exponentially. Is brick and mortar a bygone era? Do we still need to shop in store?

Shopping online has its perks – * Convenience of not going to stores (avoid checkout line, parking, crowds, save travel time) * Time flexibility with ability to shop 24/7 * Cost saving as consumers are able to compare prices conveniently * Ability to access more products online

Based on the perks, online shopping sounds like an ideal way to shop. Is it truly a perfect model?

The Biggest Problem on Apparel Online Shopping

Shopping online is also challenging since consumers cannot touch and feel the materials or try on the clothes to see if they fit them and how they look on them. This resulted in many merchandise returns after purchase which increases retailers processing costs, customers’ costs for shipping them back, time wasted to drop the returned merchandise to post office and even the negative impact to the environment as those return merchandise will end up in the landfill (Boldmetrics, 2018).

Based on our survey, sizing is the number one problem when shop for apparel online, followed by right fit and materials/color discrepancy. Sizing is the most challenging issue since there is no standard measurement for apparel. Every manufacturer has its own measurement so a size M for X Brand will not be the same as Y Brand. So how do we know if we are buying the right size? Fit is another problem since everyone has different shape and curve. Plus, certain material is more flexible than the other. Again, how do you know if the shirt is going to fit your body perfectly and accentuate your curve? How do you know if the material is rigid if you never touch it?

You can read all the label information online but it is not a guarantee that it will be the same as you imagined or thought of as you cannot see or touch the product in person. Therefore, there are some people who still prefer to shop in store as the assurance to get what you really want outweigh all the hassle of going to the store.

What Would Solving Online Shopping Problems Do to You?

Our survey shows that many would like to have the right size and fit for the apparel they purchase. In addition, time saving and less return are the next top priorities for the reasons of finding the solutions to the online shopping challenges.

How Difficult to Find Solutions to Online Shopping Problems?

Although these issues are recognized by many online shoppers, it is not the deal breaker yet as 67% of our respondents think that the solutions to their problems are not that difficult to solve. If the issue if the size and fit, some shoppers will tend to become loyal to certain brand as they know the sizing for the brand better than other. Similarly, if return is the hurdle then they will shop with those e-commerce site that offer free return or even free shipping.

The world is not perfect and there is no way to accommodate every request. But companies can try to think of the solutions one step at a time, like ViMODE which is offering a unique feature of virtual fitting room for its shoppers. It is constantly improving its costumers’ shopping experience by adopting and renewing its technology. As an e-commerce platform, VIMODE provides its vendors an option to utilize this feature to deliver better online shopping experience for their customers. This solution at least tackle the top two challenges of online shopping – sizing and fit. As for the return policy, ViMODE leaves it to the vendors with their own return policy. What ViMODE is providing might not solve all the problems online shoppers encounter but it is one step closer to towards a great online shopping experience.