At ThirdLove, just one area of innovation isn’t enough
How one retail startup is changing the way women shop for bras with disruptive approaches to technology, materials and sizing.
Succeeding at mobile commerce requires more than duplicating a desktop browser experience on a smartphone. “In order to create better retail shopping experiences — especially online and mobile — you have to do something that adds value for the customer more so than they can get in-store,” says Heidi Zak, co-founder of ThirdLove.
We visited ThirdLove’s office in San Francisco to talk with Zak about the company’s focus on fit and how they’re using technology to improve the shopping experience.
Zak had more to say about how her triple-threat retail startup sets itself apart with its mobile app, product quality and size offerings:
“What excites me most about retail and technology is pushing boundaries … that means that you’re really innovating.”
Innovation #1 — Technology
“Anytime you’re developing new technology, it’s really hard and you run into roadblocks. When we started, we didn’t even know if the technology would work. It was a 50/50 chance that we could really get it to the place where it would be accurate enough,” Zak says.
But the company’s iOS measurement app does work: 40 percent of customers use the sizing technology and those purchases result in a return rate of well below 10 percent.
“Women are blown away that they can find out their bra size from an app, and that they can do so in five minutes,” Zak says. It’s simple for users to take a few photos of themselves in a mirror, but what’s going on behind the scenes is much more complicated: “We are able to identify if you’re on an iPhone 4, 5 or 6, for example, and we know how far away you are away from the mirror based on the size of the iPhone, so from there we calculate the size of your body in relationship to the phone and calculate the circumference measurement.”
Innovation #2 — Materials
Helping customers figure out their size is just the first step to making the sale. The company uses high-quality fabrics and gold hardware in its products. “We’ll continue to innovate around our product quality,” Zak says. “One of the things that … differentiates us is using the latest technologies in foam, wire and [other] materials to make the most comfortable, well-fitting bra on the market.”
“There’s so much innovation to still come in retail.”
Innovation #3 — Sizes
“I love retail personally because you have this very tangible product and you have a consumer, and really if you think about it, it’s matching, getting that product to the right person,” Zak says.
ThirdLove found that about 37 percent of women are actually a half-size instead of one of the standard bra sizes offered by most lingerie makers. “I think the best customer stories are women who find out that they’re a half-size,” Zak says. “It’s a very unique thing to finally realize that you are a different size than you thought you were.” The company sells half-sizes online and in Bloomingdale’s, which began carrying ThirdLove products a year ago.
“We offer 30 percent more sizes than any brand in the world,” Zak says, “and we’ll continue to add on new sizes so that we can fit even more and more women.”
Connect the dots between technology and customer experience at Retail’s Digital Summit, Sept. 26–28 in Dallas:
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