The issue:

The ease of online shopping may be convenient, but could be costing people more to do so from delivery costs and also to have refunds can take up to 14 days. Is it worth shopping online for this hassle? Also waiting 3-5 days for standard shipping which can still be extremely expensive, for the products to not suit you or not fit is disheartening. You then have to go to the effort of returning the item via post and again, wait for your money back. Shopping in cities and towns may be harder to get to for some people but allows you to try things on and test them before you purchase.

The solution:

The project is a website/app which allows you to try clothes on via an avatar of yourself, the augmented reality system would place your clothes from any site on the avatar to give you an exact idea of how the clothes will fit on your body before buying them. Although this idea has already been used, my idea will differ as the website will offer substitutions of an item if it doesn’t ft how you want it to. It will take the description of the product and search other sites for the closest match, saving the shopper time as they would usually have to go from site to site looking for an alternative item. The product will be extremely specific in telling you how the clothes will fit for example, if you try on a pair of jeans, the product will tell you whether they will be too big on the air, too loose on the ankle or too tight on the leg depending on how you want them to fit. This saves online shoppers a lot of time and money as the process of returns, delivery and refund can cost a lot of money, and also be extremely frustrating when clothes don’t look the way you imagined them to.

What do you know about the Target Audience?

Things in relation to the above attributes you know for sure about the target audience:

• Behavioural: target audience will be 17-25, people who have busy lives and use technology everyday such as phones, laptops, tablets.
• Environmental: from any area, usually have a disposable income or just money from a part/full time job which they tend to spend and not save.
• Emotional: Buy products to make them feel good and build themselves to look the best they can look. May be disheartened when things don’t look as good as they planned. Potentially quite self conscious.
• Background: may be surrounded by friends/family who also like to look their best and have the same level of disposable income (middle class). Like to spend their spare time going out and socialising with friends/family.

What are your safe assumptions about the Target Audience?

• – Enjoy looking their best and take pride in their appearance.
• – Use technology in their everyday lives.
• – Enjoy and use online shopping.
• – Have a great social life.

What do you need to find out about/from the Target Audience?

• – Is online shopping the first option when buying products, especially clothes
• – Does online shopping provide them a better service than physically going shopping?
• – Is it a problem that you cannot try/test clothes before you buy them online

Who are the Primary targets for Audience Research?

• -People who use online shopping websites, especially places such as Missguided, Pretty Little Thing, Boohoo etc..
• -Bloggers/ instagram influencers who model clothing for a living.

Experts to speak to:

• Fashion bloggers who review clothing for the benefit of others.

For the crowdfunding page I must create a visual presentation of what my product would look like in the real world. As my product is an app/website, I have decided that creating mockups of these and visualising what they would look like is best. I may also create a short video of the app in action.

From looking at Kickstarter for inspiration, I have found that most pitches include short videos explaining exactly what the product is. Due to the technology I want to use in my product, I feel that I should use photoshop mock ups to best illustrate my idea as I cannot fully create the product given the time scale.

Potentially if I have time after completing my document, I will look at maybe creating an animation.

For my secondary research I decided to look at other companies who have tried to use a similar technology to help their customers. Places such as IKEA, Specsavers and GAP have all used this approach to make their customers lives easier by effectively offering them ‘try before you buy’.

Competitors:

Fitle –

• provides a service which allows you to take pictures of yourself from different angles and generates what certain clothes would look like on an avatar which is customised to look like you. This is originally my idea for my project but since finding this competitor I am slightly changing my idea from using an avatar to project the clothing on to, to using real time augmented reality where you can map the clothing on to yourself using ‘mirror selfies’. similar to IKEA’s app.
• Positive Learning: I have established that this is a problem which has tried to be solved and has succeeded in a similar way to how I would like to do it.  It has given me a greater idea of how the technology works.
• Negative Learning: The idea I had thought of had already been taken and brought to my attention that it would maybe be too much hassle for customers to create an avatar and use exact measurements, as our bodies constantly change

GAP – https://adressed.gapinc.com/blog/gap-ces-announcement-2017-dressingroom-app

• Called the DressingRoom – GAP have created a virtual dressing room which allows users to create an avatar with the exact measurements of your body to create a realistic augmented reality version of yourself trying their clothes on. The app lets you point the camera anywhere and place whichever clothes on to the avatar. Although this idea is extremely similar to mine, the factors which differ the two is that GAP use an avatar and is only available for GAP customers, whereas my product works in partnership with all major online clothing companies and uses augmented reality to map the clothes on to your own body in real time using the camera on the customers smart device.
• Positive Learning – I have established that this is something which clothing companies want to try and introduce for their customers and that it is something the customers do want. Also the fact that this system works and has been tried before.
• Negative Learning – The idea which I originally had was to create an avatar, which GAP have already done. This means I had to adjust my idea for my product.

Inspiration & Analogous Research

IKEA –

• have created an app called IKEA Place. This app allows you to point your camera on a smart device at the room you want to put your new furniture in and choose which furniture you wish to try. It positions the furniture in your room so you can have an exact idea what the product would look like before buying. This is the same technology which I have decided to look into for my own product as it shows in real time what the product would look like on your body.
• Positive Learning: It has taught me the technology and how it works to provide a benefit to their customers.
• Negative Learning: IKEA are not a technology company so I am just taking their idea, there is no real indication as to how the technology works.

Specsavers

• Specsavers have introduced a feature on their website which allows you to pick a pair of glasses which you’re interested in potentially buying, and lets you try them on before you buy. They use the camera on your smart device and augmented reality to position the glasses on the customers face so they have a clear idea of what they will look like in them glasses without having to go in to the shop.
• Positive Learning – although this isn’t in the clothing industry, this feature shows that more people are wanting this opportunity to know what things will look like before they commit to purchasing the product. And this is something that people are interested in using when shopping online.
• Negative Learning – The app reviews for this idea are very low (1 or 2 out of 5 stars). Many users saying that the concept is a brilliant idea, but the design of the app makes it difficult to use.

For my primary research I identified a target audience of females aged between 17-25. This age group of girls is one which I consider to be the most likely to use online shopping the most. Students also I feel, are more likely to shop online due to the big discounts and the ease of not having to go in to a physical shop to find clothing. To conduct my primary research I decided to look at major online clothing companies social media posts, and find customers who have commented on their posts and approach them with my questionnaire. The people I have targeted are direct online shoppers and I felt that the results would be most accurate by asking these people.

I created a questionnaire on google forms, and sent the link to my target audience to fill out. I didn’t want to send it to too many people as the questions had a lot of open answers so I wanted just enough to see a trend.

Analysis of questionnaire results:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1xyLzU71gJjMqJkWv-_uSk0lKLPOXZguinPiZQT7XjPs/edit#responses

What is the reason you shop online for clothes rather than in physical shops?

Nearly all of the answers to this questions suggested that online shopping was convenient and easier and that you get a better choice online.

What is the reason that you may still shop in physical shops/shopping centres rather than online?

The answers to this question suggested that one of the reasons they still go shopping is to try the item on to ensure it fits, and to also know what the quality of the material is like, which you cant do online.

Name a problem with shopping online for clothes.

Most answers to this question mention the fact that sizing is an issue and that the item looks different in person to what it does online. The hassle of delivery was also mentioned in that you have to pay extra for it, and it can take too long.

What are the factors which determine your decision to shop either online or the physical world?

Most of the responses to this question mention the fact that it saves time to shop online, especially for people who are far away from physical shops.

What is your experience in regard to not being able to try clothes on online?

The majority of answers for this question mention the fact that they have had to send items back and re order new sizes which can take a long time to be refunded and you also then have to pay again for delivery.

 

In conclusion, the answers from my questionnaire make it clear that although online shopping is quicker and easier, it can also me more stressful as you can’t clearly indicate which clothes will suit you or be the quality which you expect them to be. The product I decide to make will solve these issues which will then save shoppers time and money as they will be less likely to return a product as they have already seen it on themselves.