Japanese sizing tech specialist Makip has a new UK-based client with Komodo Fashion having signed up to its specialist solution after looking at a number of different tech offers previously.

Having started as a wholesaler and later moving into direct e-commerce (now accounting for 40% of its sales), the company has seen the problems that come with a growing e-business. 

Komodo Manager Tony Mountford has been on the lookout for an online sizing specialist but said he’d never found a partner that was the right fit. 

“I first started looking at online sizing technology about five years ago, but what I discovered at the time was technology that required a lot of heavy lifting from us,” he explained. “The providers had good features, but others features were less relevant to us — it just didn’t feel like the right time to make an investment”.

But having now implemented Makip’s Unisize offer, the company said the tech “is already providing good data insight to the Komodo team, allowing them to use it more efficiently. Positioning the app on the Komodo website so that it is prominent to the shoppers is encouraging use, which is already generating an upturn in conversion rates. Increased conversion rates are a sign of an increase in customer confidence, which is hoping to produce a reduction in return rates, which overall will equal an uplift in profits”.

And Montford also said that “once the Unisize app was on the website we were already in conversation with the Makip team to discuss how we can improve it and make the experience more streamlined. We were impressed with how they listened to what we wanted and worked with us to develop the app to suit our needs. Often software suppliers can be quite rigid in what they can offer, but the Makip team listened and collaborated with us.”

The partners are planning to launch more features of the Unisize online sizing app “soon”.

Mountford also said that the company wants to “entice new customers to purchase through the website and it’s important for new customers that we get it right the first time. By offering an accurate online sizing experience that allows customers to choose the right size of clothing the first time, every time, the Unisize app helps us to build customer confidence. Once customers are confident that our online sizing is accurate they won’t order the same item in multiple sizes and therefore it lowers the number of returns”.

As online shopping ramped up in the middle of the last decade, the company said it found that “online purchasing behaviour definitely changed with many online fashion shoppers ordering the same item in at least two sizes. So you can assume they are planning to return at least 50% of their purchases. 

“You can offer free shipping and free returns — but that will just increase the cost of the item and does nothing to discourage unsustainable purchasing behaviour. We prefer to discourage customers from over-buying and encourage more considered purchasing”.

With the cost of returns in the UK expected to cost the country’s retailers £4.4 billion by 2026 (a big chunk of money for a retail industry currently worth £54 billion annually), sizing tech is currently seen as a key way to get to grips with the returns issue and Makip is hoping to grab a big chunk of that business..

After launching in Britain last year, it’s increasing its presence in the country with more personnel on the ground.