Q&A: Peder Stubert of Virtusize

Online retail is flying. But there are still a few big challenges which prevent online shops from providing the same service as customers find in-store. The ability to try things on is an important one of these.

The rush to create technology which solves this problem has been likened to a gold rush. Many companies have created solutions using various methods which improve the ability to tell how something will fit. One of the companies at the forefront of this market is Virtusize.

The Swedish company has got an impressive list of retailers on its client list and recently landed a deal with UK clothing colossus ASOS to create a virtual changing room experience on the store.

We caught up with one of the founders Peder Stubert to find out more.

Where did the idea for Virtusize come from?

We were shopping online and ran into the problem of not being able to try clothes on – we often ordered and got the wrong size. We wanted to solve this problem and realised it was about the fit more for us. You can get an understanding of colour, cut and design quite easily from multiple images on product pages but size and fit is non-existent.

We looked around and saw that on eBay, products have their measurements next to them. The idea being that if you compare with something you own you can tell if it will fit. We looked around at progressive web shops and saw they do the same.

We thought why not do something more useful and the idea came up of overlaying one silhouette of something you own to another you want to buy.

How long did it take to create the technology?

It took some time for sure, creating software and internet consumer products is a continuous process. We are at the point where we are very proud of the product – it is working fantastically there is a lot of exciting stuff we want to do.

Our team is very focused on the product seven out of 11 staff members are working on the product and only four on the business-side and even on the business-side we can’t stay away from the product. It is such an important thing, people appreciate it and have a lot of ideas of how to do it.

Would you agree there was something of a race to create the best solution?

There’s definitely been something of a gold rush. For online shops it is an extremely important problem to crack and they are at the point when they are addressing it. It is the main priority most of the online shops and no-one has the size and fit problem sorted yet (apart from our clients)!

For an online stores it is worth enormous value as it can reduce returns which are huge problem and potentially increase sales and also improve the general consumer experience. We have heard this from a lot of retailers and the response from consumers is overwhelming positive. We ran a survey on ASOS and 85% of responses were positive answers.

Have you had any investment so far?

Investors certainly agree this is the Holy Grail for retailers. We had seed funding of £1m from a mixture of investors including investment firm Öresund as well as a guy called Fredrik Åhlberg former Head of Growth at eBay Europe.

We approached him to see if eBay was interested in the product then he brought up the subject in San Francisco one time. He had seen all kinds of different solutions on the table and he decided to invest in us.

So what makes your solution better than the rest?

It is we have so many different arguments!

First there are not that many others that actually show size and fit visually. The two main companies in the US, True Fit and Clothes Horse just recommend a size they don’t visually show what it will fit like. For example from them you will know that you are a medium in a Ralph Lauren dress, they simply suggest a size.

Then you have one or two others trying to illustrate it by starting with your body and creating 3D versions. Fit.me is the main one – the way we differ is that when you use Fit.me it is hard to see small differences between sizes and styles. For example over the chest there could be a difference of three to four cm. If you put on a 3D avatar the difference is not very visible.

They only cover uppers and we cover everything, trousers etc. Also we are easier to scale because every time they add new products they have to put them on the robot and film it. We don’t have to do anything like that.

Today we are the biggest largest online virtual fitting in terms of availability. Virtusize is available on 30,000 products in 23 different online retailers. Our pilot customer was Nelly it is the largest pure online shop in Scandinavia, a bit like ASOS here.

So how did the deal with ASOS happen?

We approached them a while back and they were interested but said it might not be the right time. We continued a dialog with them and in June last year they said “Now is a good time,” and then in one month we set up a trial version which we ran for 6 months and they had fantastic results.

The found a significant reduction in returns, increased conversions and fantastic feedback from their consumers. We signed a deal with them two months ago went live on their site two weeks ago on 2,000 products. We are looking to launch on the majority of their range throughout the year.

What’s next?

For us now is really important to get current version out there so people find it on as many product pages as possible. We will have a big focus on the UK which is an important market as well as Germany, the US and Japan. We will be concentrating on the big retailers as they the most effect in impact for everyone – it is the best strategy.

But we are open for any retailer to contact us. We are not going to approach every small retailer it is quicker to talk to the big ones but smaller retailers can call us we are open to any retail, any type of demographic.

Our vision long-term is to be the standard for illustrating size and fit online!