Fit Studio: Body Measurements and Size Advice

Overview

Fit Studio helps shoppers buy clothes that fit without visiting your shop. On a product page they choose Will it fit me? or Measure me, then their camera or a tape measure. With the camera they stand in front of their phone or laptop camera, and follow spoken and on-screen instructions: first facing the camera, then turned to the side. In about a minute they have their measurements, which they check and correct before anything is sent.

Fit Studio can do two things, per product or per category:

• Size advice. Fit Studio compares the shopper's measurements with your size chart and recommends a size, with the reason ("based on your chest and waist") and a note when they are between two sizes. Clothing gets size advice automatically, even before you add a size chart (see below).
• Made to measure. For items you make or alter to fit, the shopper must add their measurements before the item can go in the cart. The measurements arrive on the order line.

Shoppers who would rather not use a camera can type in measurements from a tape measure instead, with a short how-to for each one.

Open it from Catalog > Fit Studio.

Automatic on clothing

You do not have to set Fit Studio up product by product. While Offer Fit Studio on clothing automatically is on (at the top of Catalog > Fit Studio; it is on unless you switch it off), every product recognised as clothing shows a Will it fit me? button next to its size picker. The switch changes every clothing page in your store at once, so it is a store setting: only someone with the settings permission (the store owner) can turn it on or off. Anyone who can see products can see whether it is on.

• What counts as clothing. BestWebby reads the product's name, category, type and tags, in English and French: dresses, skirts, tops, shirts and blouses, T-shirts, sweaters and hoodies, jackets and coats, suits and blazers, trousers, jeans and shorts, jumpsuits, lingerie, swimwear, activewear, uniforms, kurtas, saree blouses, lehengas and more.
• What is left out. Shoes (their sizes are not body measurements), bags, jewellery and watches, accessories such as hats, scarves, belts, ties and gloves, fragrance and beauty products. Children's and baby clothing and clothes for pets and dolls are left out too, because typical adult sizes would mislead. You can still turn Fit Studio on for any of them with your own size chart.
• Without your own size chart, the suggestion comes from typical body sizes, women's or men's, XS to 3XL, by chest or bust, waist and hip. Fit Studio picks women's or men's from the product's name, category or tags, and asks the shopper when they do not say. Every such suggestion tells the shopper: "Based on typical sizing — this store has not added its own size guide, so check the item's description too." It is never shown as your size guide.
• With a size chart for the product's category (or chosen on the product), the advice uses your sizes instead, exactly as described under Size charts below.
• Nothing is required. Size advice never stops a shopper from adding the item to the cart, and one-tap wallet checkout stays on the page. Automatic items are never made to measure.
• Measurements with the order only when the shopper says so. After measuring, the shopper can tick Send my measurements with my order so the store can check the fit. It is not ticked for them. Ticked, the measurements arrive on the order line like any other, with the suggested size marked as coming from typical sizes.
• Turning it off. Switch the setting off for the whole store, or choose Off for this product in a product's Fit Studio section. Off for a product always wins. A change reaches your storefront within about a minute.

Under the setting, the Fit Studio page lists the clothing that has no size chart yet, with a button to add a chart for each category. Once a category has a chart, its products leave the list and advise from your sizes.

Private by design

• The camera picture never leaves the shopper's device. Measuring runs in the shopper's own browser. No photo, video or picture of the shopper is recorded, stored or sent to you or to BestWebby. Only the numbers the shopper reviews and confirms are sent, with their order.
• The shopper says yes first. Fit Studio explains, in plain words, what the camera is used for before it asks for it. The camera switches off as soon as measuring ends, when the shopper closes Fit Studio, or when they switch to another tab or app. If measuring has not finished after three minutes, the camera switches off and the shopper is offered the tape measure form instead.
• Shoppers can be shown as a figure. By default the shopper sees an outline figure that follows their pose, not the camera picture. They can turn the picture on if they prefer.
• Everything is served from your store's own address. The measuring files load from your storefront, not from a third-party site, so no outside company learns who is measuring themselves in your store.

How accurate it is

Camera measurements are estimates. When the shopper follows the instructions, they are usually within 3 to 5 cm (about 1 to 2 in) for chest, waist and hip, and within about 3 cm (about 1 in) for shoulder width, sleeve, inseam and other lengths. A tape measure is more exact.

Every value is shown to the shopper, and to you, with its own ± range. The range is wider when the frames Fit Studio captured disagreed with each other, for example because the shopper moved.

What makes a measurement better:

• The shopper's height is typed in accurately: every value is scaled from it.
• Close-fitting clothes. Loose clothing makes the body look bigger.
• The camera upright, at about waist height, 2 to 3 metres away, with the whole body from head to feet in the frame.
• Good, even light and a plain background.
• Bare feet or socks.

If a part of the body cannot be read clearly, Fit Studio leaves that measurement empty and asks the shopper to type it in.

Size charts

A size chart lists your sizes and the measurements that go with each, in centimetres or inches. Create one under Catalog > Fit Studio > New size chart, or start from a template (women's tops, men's shirts, trousers, made to measure) and change it to match your own sizing.

For each chart, choose:

How the size is chosen. Each measurement in the chart points to a size. Girths (neck, chest, waist, hip, shoulder) decide, and the largest size any of them needs wins, so the garment is not tight anywhere. Lengths (sleeve, inseam) are shown as a note when they point to a different size, because a length is usually altered rather than sized up. When a measurement's ± range reaches into the next size, the shopper is told they are between two sizes and which one suits their fit preference.

If your product has a Size option whose values match the chart's sizes (for example S, M, L), Fit Studio selects the recommended size for the shopper.

Per product

Every product's edit page has a Fit Studio section. It shows whether Fit Studio is on for the product and why, for example Fit Studio: Automatic (clothing), with Turn off for this product beside it. Choose:

• Automatic (the default): the category's size chart, or, for clothing with none, typical sizes while the store setting is on, or
• Will it fit me? (size advice), Made to measure, or both, with a chart of your choice, or
• Off for this product.

A made-to-measure product cannot be added to the cart until the shopper has added their measurements. One-tap wallet checkout is hidden on its page, and checkout refuses the line without them.

Where measurements show up

• The order page. Each measured line shows every measurement with its ± range, how it was taken (camera, tape measure, or camera corrected by the shopper), the suggested size (marked "typical sizes" when the item had no size chart) and the fit preference. Switch between cm and inches.
• The production sheet. Production sheet on the order opens a printable page of the measurements for the cutting table or the alterations rail. Measurements are never printed on the packing slip, which travels in the box and is often seen by someone else.
• Email. The Measurements arrive with an order notification emails the measurements to you when the order is paid. It is on by default; change it under Settings > Notifications. The notification feed in the dashboard says that measurements arrived without repeating the numbers.

Asking for measurements after an order

For an order that is already placed, open it and, in the Measurements section, choose Email the customer a measuring link (sent from your store's own email address) or Create a link to send yourself. The link opens a page on your store where the customer can measure themselves or type in measurements. It works for 14 days, and you can withdraw it at any time. When the customer sends their measurements, they appear on the order and you are notified. Sending again before the link expires replaces the earlier measurements.

The link is shown to you once. Only a fingerprint of it is stored, so if it is lost, create a new one.

Saved measurements, access and deletion

• A signed-in shopper can tick Save to my account to reuse their measurements next time. Nothing is saved without that tick.
• Shoppers see their saved measurements under Account > Measurements, can measure again, and can delete them at any time.
• Measurements are included in the shopper's Download my data export, both saved ones and those sent with orders.
• When you erase a customer, their saved measurements, the measurements on their orders and any open request links are deleted with the rest of their personal information.
• Measurements are stored only on the order line they were sent with, and on the shopper's account when they chose to save them. Each store sees only its own.

Devices and browsers

Fit Studio works in current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari on phones, tablets and computers with a camera. The first time, it downloads its measuring files (about 21 MB) once; the browser keeps them for next time. On a device without a camera, when camera access is not allowed, or in an older browser, shoppers are offered the tape measure form instead.