Japanese want to revolutionize online shopping with costume

One of the main problems stopping people from buying clothes on the Internet is choosing the right size. Suddenly the sleeves will be too short? Or waist narrow? Or in the shoulders will not sit? Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa with his popular fashion website ZozoTown figured out how to get rid of these problems forever. And they believe that their idea will become so popular that it will allow the company to become one of the largest and most profitable retailers in the world.

Yusaku Maezawa is a rather unusual person, even among billionaires (in his 42 years he has $ 3 billion). Last year, the Japanese "became famous" for the whole world by making a record purchase of a painting by an African-American artist for $ 110 million, and building a "mansion" for her and himself in two rooms for $ 5.2 million. But his new idea is perhaps even more crazy. He invests about $ 500 million (and potentially up to $ 1 billion) in the free release of special suits for his clients. In his opinion, this will allow ZozoTown to become at the level of Zara, Uniqlo, GAP and H & M if people “try out” a new technology.

Maesawa’s empire will expand with the fun-looking ZozoSuit spandex suit, which, if everything goes according to plan, should revolutionize online shopping. It was first announced in November 2017, and the other day, on April 27, its updated version became available to order on the website. The suit scored 230,000 orders in the first 10 hours. Now the figure is approaching 1.2 million. It exceeded the company's expectations, so that the last customers will be able to get it only in July.

ZozoTown plans to distribute from 6 to 10 million suits for March-2019 free of charge in order to recruit a sufficient number of people who have adopted the new technology and to gain its recognition in society (at least in Japan). The costumes are relatively cheap to manufacture, and will make buyers more loyal to their site, so the potential profit can be very large.

The suit is designed to accurately measure all proportions of the human body. Customers put it on, scan themselves from their smartphone (with the Zozo app), and get a 3D model of their body. And then the Tokyo company can offer them clothes that perfectly fit their sizes.

The old ZozoSuit model contained about 150 gauges taking measurements of you. As an experienced tailor, only without someone else's hands with a tape coming to you in different places. But the company had to abandon the sensory model so that the costume turned out to be cheaper, so that it wouldn’t be necessary to insert the battery into it and so that it could be easily washed. Now, in the new version, the suit is all in points, like a polka-fabric, and comes with a stand for the smartphone. To get a measurement, you put a smartphone in front of you, put on spandex, and make a 360-degree turn in front of the smartphone's camera, listening to the voice commands of the program. The application matches all points and draws your 3D model.

Further in the smartphone, you can view your exact parameters for each area (neck, lower leg, thickness and length of the forearm, chest, waist and so on). And upload this information directly to the ZozoTown website in order to use it to sort clothes.

Yusaku Maezawa says that ZozoSuit will ensure that online shoppers get their clothes in size and they don’t have to return the goods back to the store. This will increase the level of user satisfaction, and in the future it will save his company a lot of money. Moreover, this method of measurement can be useful not only for online retailers selling clothes and shoes. From the Zozo application, it is already possible to collect information about customers, about their actual dimensions (and not those that they project onto themselves). You can start creating new models not for mannequins standing in shop windows, but specifically for the most common figures in your area.

Start Today (the main company that owns ZozoTown) was established 20 years ago, in 1998, and is now one of the largest firms for the production and sale of clothing in Japan, with annual revenues of $ 2.6 billion. The website ZozoTown has 25 million unique visitors per month. But Maezawa says that this situation does not suit him. On Friday, he presented his 10-year plan, according to which his firm should grow 5 times, and reach a capitalization of 5 trillion yen (about $ 46 billion). A new suit will be called upon to help.

ZozoSuit was developed with the help of New Zealand-based StretchSense from Auckland. Last year, Start Today invested $ 20 million in its development, and in February bought this small company with 130 employees for $ 72 million. StretchSense owns the technology of such measurements, which are now used in the Japanese suit. Walking in his ZozoSuit at a presentation in Tokyo on Friday, Maezawa said:

No more trying on anything. No need to think about it. You will automatically deliver what is perfect for you. In my opinion, this is a breakthrough. With this we will enter the top ten largest clothing retailers in the world.

The return of clothing by online shoppers do not like the retail industry. Last year, Amazon bought Body Labs, a developer of 3D body scanning technology, specifically to solve this problem. The American Internet hypermarket plans that people will be able to create their digital avatar, and then try on clothes on it. Well, since July this year Yusaku Maezawa will start distributing his “polka” costume in more than 70 countries.

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