Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Fall 2018
  • Article
  • Manufacturing & Service Operations Management

The Value of Fit Information in Online Retail: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment

By: Santiago Gallino and Antonio Moreno
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Online channels generate frictions when selling products with nondigital attributes, such as apparel. Customers may be reluctant to purchase products they have not been able to try on, and those customers who do purchase may return products when they do not fit as expected. Virtual fitting-room technologies provide information about how a product fits a particular customer and promise to mitigate some of the frictions the information gap generates in the retailers’ supply chains. By implementing a series of randomized field experiments, we study the value of virtual fit information in online retail. In our experiments, customers are randomly assigned to a treatment condition where virtual fit information is available or to a control condition where virtual fit information is not available. Our results show that offering virtual fit information increases conversion rates and order value and reduces fulfillment costs arising from returns and home try-on behavior, that is, customers ordering multiple sizes of the same product. We explore mechanisms through which providing virtual fit information helps customers and retailers. We argue that the virtual fitting tool creates spillovers even to products that are not available for virtual try-on, increases loyalty, helps customers better parse their choice sets, and reduces uncertainty by providing size recommendation.

Keywords

Supply Chain Information; Fit Uncertainty; Online Retail; Randomized Field Experiment; Virtual Fitting Room; Digital Retail; Customization and Personalization; Internet and the Web; Value; Performance Improvement; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Retail Industry

Citation

Gallino, Santiago, and Antonio Moreno. "The Value of Fit Information in Online Retail: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment." Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 20, no. 4 (Fall 2018): 767–787.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Antonio Moreno

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Algorithmic Assortment Curation: An Empirical Study of Buybox in Online Marketplaces

    By: Santiago Gallino, Nil Karacaoglu and Antonio Moreno
    • June 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Zalando: Becoming the Starting Point for Fashion

    By: Antonio Moreno, Leela Nageswaran, Emilie Billaud and Federica Gabrieli
    • June 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Worten Portugal: Becoming a Digital Marketplace

    By: Antonio Moreno, Pedro Amorim and Tonia Labruyere
More from the Authors
  • Algorithmic Assortment Curation: An Empirical Study of Buybox in Online Marketplaces By: Santiago Gallino, Nil Karacaoglu and Antonio Moreno
  • Zalando: Becoming the Starting Point for Fashion By: Antonio Moreno, Leela Nageswaran, Emilie Billaud and Federica Gabrieli
  • Worten Portugal: Becoming a Digital Marketplace By: Antonio Moreno, Pedro Amorim and Tonia Labruyere
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College