FOXNews.com - How Do I Find the Right Fit for Clothes? - Finance | Personal | Business...

FOXNews.com - How Do I Find the Right Fit for Clothes? Finance | Personal | Business FOXNews.com - How Do I Find the Right Fit for Clothes? - Finance | Personal | Business | Personal Finances Tuesday, March 20, 2007

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer Q: I hate to shop for clothing and I am hard to fit. What are the new online sites to help me find the right clothing, particularly jeans?

A: For those who don't want to step inside a dressing room, there are plenty of options now to help customers find the right fit in jeans and other fashions.

The pioneer has been catalog retailer Lands' End Inc., which began offering custom-made apparel in 2001, starting out with chinos and in 2002 with jeans; custom-made clothing has since expanded to items like men's dress shirts and men's tailored pants. Meanwhile, Lands' End continues to tweak the interactive mannequin it launched on its Web site in 1998, a technology from My Virtual Model Inc. that allows customers to try on clothes virtually.

But over the past six months, the number of opportunities has expanded. Zafu.com launched as an online jeans resource in August and spits out suggestions based on customers' responses to 11 questions. And it doesn't require a measuring tape. Another company called Intellifit Corp. is now eying airports; it has been offering a body scanning service in certain Levi Strauss & Co.'s stores and other outlets over the last two years. Last week, it opened a scanning kiosk at the Philadelphia International Airport.

Meanwhile, myShape.com, launched in October, relies on the old-fashioned measuring tape; it combines certain key measurements with customers' style and fit preferences to come up with clothing suggestions that range from casual jeans to workwear.

They're all capitalizing on women's constant struggle with fit. Online apparel sales reached $9.6 billion last year, but are only 5 percent of the total apparel market, according to Forrester Research.

Jeans _ a category that has become white hot amid new styles and finishes _ makes up for far less since they're so hard to fit, analysts say. Rob Holloway, CEO of Zafu, estimated that return rates online for jeans had been anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent, depending on the style and tightness of the look. That compares to a 20 percent return rate online for overall apparel, said Sucharita Mulpuru, a Forrester analyst.

"Women really struggle to find jeans that fit. The average person tries on at least seven pairs of jeans before finding the one that fits," said Holloway. He added that at zafu.com, return rates run anywhere from high single digits to low double digits.

Zafu and others are fast expanding into new categories, a testament that their own formula is working.

Zafu.com started out with jeans for women and teens, but will expand to include plus-size jeans in May and bras in June, according to Holloway.

It works this way: Customers answer questions about their body types, style preferences and size, such as "What's your seat shape?" and "How would you describe your thighs." That information is then passed through Zafu's proprietary algorithms to develop a personal profile, which is matched to a data base of 100 brands to make recommendations. To buy, women click onto the link and are directed to the online store or they can print out a copy and take it to a store.

Unlike Zafu.com, myShape.com, which currently offers 100 apparel brands, owns the inventory.

Consumers take ten key measurements and answer questions like whether they like to wear their clothes tight. That helps customers be linked to a particular body shape, and based on a combination of measurements and style preferences, the online site comes up with recommendations.

Louise Wannier, myShape.com's CEO, noted that it has streamlined its questionnaire so it takes about 8 minutes to complete, instead of 15 minutes. About 70 percent of the items it sells are pants, including jeans. MyShape.com plans to eventually expand offerings to cater to children and men.

Intellifit's president Rob Weber sees big growth opportunity with airports. The company also plans to open scanning kiosks at the Newark International Airport and Baltimore/Washington airport.

"Since 9/11, people are going to the airport early. They are looking at things to do," said Weber.

Once being scanned, customers can then log on with their password to the site Intellifit.com, where they choose from a recommended styles from names like Nordstrom, Levi's and Gap. The site, launched March 15, initially targets men, but will be expanded to women later, Weber said. About half of the items offered are jeans. ____ On the Net: http://www.intellifit.com http://www.landsend.com http://www.myshape.com http://www.zafu.com Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_wires/2007Mar20/0,4675,GoodQuestion,00.html