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September 2023 - Retail

Almost half consumers would like to use virtual dressing rooms to try on clothes: A survey of consumers has revealed an insight into what shopping might look like in the future with 48% of shoppers polled saying they would like to be able to try on clothes virtually. More than a quarter said that this could happen using augmented reality (AR), while 23% said they would rely on AI to guide them in which styles would best suit their body shape and personal style. More than half, however said they believe they will try on clothes much as they do now, either at home or in a real-life fitting room (53%).

The research by Klarna, the Global payments and shopping service polled more than 1,000 respondents between the ages of 18 to 77 in five countries including the UK, U.S., France, Germany and Sweden.

The study revealed that almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents want to see a more personalised shopping experience in the future, with more than a third believing this will happen both in-store as well as online. Three in five people (59%) said they would be open to robots approaching them in-store as they shop to advise them about styles and take their measurements, found the survey, while 18% said their openness to the idea would depend upon how the robot looks and behaves.

A third of respondents to the survey said they would like to have access to their own personal shopper that offers recommendations and suggestions based on their unique tastes and fashion sense, whenever they shop online.

The research showed a lot of positive sentiment around AR with 81% saying they are expecting it to improve in-store shopping experiences, while 37% imagine it will be become standard across retail businesses.

The research also found that it's unlikely that virtual shopping will replace the real-life experience, with fewer than half of the Gen Z respondents polled saying they believe VR shopping would become more popular than real-life in the next 20 years.

Bhupendar Singh, head of D2C and corporate marketing at Samsung, said:

"The focus, as we all know, is on artificial intelligence and the advantages and disadvantages that this technology will bring, not only to companies and organisations, but also to the end consumer. The future of e-commerce also goes through this, and we believe that it will be strongly influenced by emerging technologies, not only by AI, but also by virtual and augmented reality, and especially by IoT (internet of things).”

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