Fit:Match Bringing Contactless Apparel Shopping Experience to Brookfield Properties
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Amid reports that consumers continue to lack confidence to return to stores after the coronavirus pandemic due to safety concerns, Brookfield Properties has announced the rollout of Fit:Match studios starting in this summer. Fit:Match, the company that uses 3-D AI-powered technology to allow customers to find perfectly fitting apparel, will offer Brookfield shoppers a contactless shopping experience.
Oakbrook Center in the Chicago area will be the first to launch the experience in mid-August, followed by Glendale Galleria in the Los Angeles area and Stonebriar Centre in the Dallas area in mid-September.
“We are always focused on innovating to make the consumer shopping experience better and to drive results for our brand partners,” said Patty Hirt, director of retail development at Brookfield Properties. “We collaborated with Fit:Match on a highly successful pilot of the studio experience in our Baybrook Mall property, so we’re very excited to now be expanding our strategic partnership and investment. We’re confident this data-driven, contactless experience will drive traffic and engagement at Oakbrook Center while permanently addressing one of the most intractable problems we all face when shopping for clothes — finding exactly the right fit.”
Fit:Match and Brookfield Properties previously collaborated on a temporary studio concept at Houston’s Baybrook Mall in late 2019 and early 2020. The studio saw an 80 percent participation rate among people who entered the Fit:Match Studio and resulted in almost 4,000 consumers getting sized and joining the company’s platform.
To get sized, or “fitched,” and receive a Fitch ID, shoppers must answer a short series of questions that serve to provide contact information and fit preferences. The Fit:Match technology also captures 150 points of the consumer’s body in about 10 seconds. An algorithm is then able to assign a unique relevancy score to the user to each apparel item based on the formulated Fitch ID, data from brands’ tech packs and specifications including fabric type and stretch. The user is able to start shopping immediately from a personalized assortment without needing to try on clothes.
“Apparel retail hasn’t evolved much in the last 50 years, with stores and web sites still presenting an overwhelming assortment of products to customers, placing the burden on them to select the right items,” said Haniff Brown, founder and chief executive officer of Fit:Match. “The industry needs a transformative overhaul, and the pandemic has only increased that need. We are championing a bold future of omnichannel apparel retail that is contactless and asset-light and that uses 3-D and AI technologies to eliminate fit risk, streamline the customer experience and give customers only what they want while freeing them from ever having to try on clothes again.”
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