"Vad säger en size guide om hur tröjan kommer sitta på mig?"

: Design för att minska returer inom e-handel

Abstract

E-commerce within the fashion industry has increased rapidly the last few years, and since the outbreak of the corona pandemic it has only continued growing. The online retailers are competing with each other by offering free deliveries and returns which has led to a behaviour where customers are intentionally ordering excess amounts of garments to try at home and then return. These returns have turned out to have a great negative impact on the environment, as they are transported across countries leaving huge carbon dioxide emissions. This study aims to explore the customers’ perspective on e-commerce and the environmental impact and how this can be prevented by designing tools for sizing and virtual dressing rooms that are easy to use and does not require advanced technology. The results show that all participants are well aware of the impact on the environment but they are also of the opinion that it is up to the retailers to prevent how big the impact will end up being. The main reason for the intentional returns turns out to be the fact that one cannot imagine the fit of the garment while shopping online combined with not wanting to measure oneself at home to use the provided size guides. The theoretical point of this study builds on previous studies of design of virtual dressing rooms and shows that the customers do not yet feel ready to use technology that is too advanced while shopping online. This study presents the design of a convenient tool to help customers to choose the right size and garments before ordering as a result of the qualitative interviews with the aim to fill the gap between intentional returns and future use of VR technology.