Are you sure sizes don’t matter?

One in every two customers returns a fashion product he had bought because of the wrong size.

This is what come to light from “The State of Online Returns in 2019: A Global Study”, a Narvar survey on 3519 global consumers, aged 19-65, who made an online purchase at least once in the last year.

This data coincides with the results of an Internet Retailer and Bizrate Insights survey: one in every two customers said size was the top reason why they returned an online purchase and it is estimated that in Europe alone, the returns due to incorrect size cost retailers more than 8.4 billion euros every day.

And we’re not talking of chicken feed.

It will have happened to you too to buy fashion products online and to choose the wrong size; or better to think to have bought the right size and then find out it was too short or too large.

Or to enter a shop and try on two items of clothing and be surprised because one was too short and the other too large.

Do you think the belt world is different?

Do you think the number written on your belt lining is irrefutable? I’m sorry to disappoint you but it’s not.

It may be happen to you also to stand in front of those sad belt exhibitors, the ones you find in the leather goods shops or in the clothing shops and to take two different belts with the same size written on the lining and see, at bare eye, they hadn’t the same length.

Even if I’m used to, I surprised myself every time.

Having the wrong size on the lining is a useless concern both for retailers and for the brands who are selling these items; why?

Because, as we have seen before this situation turns into returns for retailers who are selling online or if these goods are gifts, or in time spent in shortening the belt with a leather belt eyelet hole punch plier, screwdrivers and scissors and in remaining stock if we’re talking of physical stores. And remaining stocks affect you, buyer, because next season retailers will buy a few pieces less.

It's no big deal, but if this trend is repeated season after season the consequences become more important.

Have you ever wondered why there are these differences in indicating the sizes?

Before writing this article, I’ve asked to the girls of my team to ask their boyfriends and friends if they know how the size of a belt is taken and, as I imagine, the answer they gave was: from the end of the buckle to the end of the belt.

And I’m not surprised because, as I told you also in the video I published on Monday, this is the same reason the sales assistant of Fendi gave me.

The matter that surprise me is that some so-called “collegues” of mine use this kind of measure. They, whose daily business is producing belts, don’t know how to take the measure. Or they give you the wrong one.

And it is not taken for granted that you know which is the right measure.

I’ve met a lot of buyers who were overloaded of work: they had to take care of bags, shoes, scarves, hats and also belts. And how can you think they know perfectly well all the specifications of every item?

It’s like if you ask me how many centimetres correspond to a small size of a woman hat. I don’t know.

It is a too technical question.

But let’s go back to my comfort zone and my belts.

As I told you before, a lot of belt producers take the measure starting from the end of the buckle to the medial hole (the central one) which is the more aesthetics.

This picture is an example I found on the website of a very important Italian brand where they are suggesting how to take the measure of a men belt. And it is wrong.

But why?

Because in this way the buckle changes the measure, shortening or lengthening the measure of the belt depending on the length of the buckle.

What if the buckle measures 2 cm or 10 cm? You will have a difference of 8 cm from a belt to the other and 8 cm are not so few, not only for belts.

In this other picture you see how to measure the length of a belt properly.

You see the measure starts from the medial hole (the central and the most aesthetic one) to the inner part of the buckle.

Why this is the right measure?

Because when a person needs to take his waistline with a tape measure, he ties it around his complete waistline.

And if he measures the belt not including the buckle there will be some centimetres less that, in the belt world, make the difference between a size to another.

Most likely you are among those who already knew this method, but I think a little refresher is always good.

In our world there are often crafty suppliers, and also many ignorant, and I am tired of my clients paying the consequences.

Also because these inaccuracies affect your sales.

Now, since my goal is to help you improve the sales of your brand, I want you to be honest with me and that you decide to contact me only if you are really ready to take that extra step that has allowed many of my clients to increase their sell-out and their margins.

Such as? Simply by establishing a collaboration that goes beyond the mere supplier-customer relationship.

My staff and I want to be the reference point for our customers, advisors who can be at their side throughout our relationship also because I cannot promise you that there will be no unexpected, but I can promise you that we will face them together.

For this reason, as I told you in the "Who I am" section, the first step of every new collaboration is to get to know each other because I study each collection tailored to a specific customer based on its values, its DNA, its target audience and at the optimal price range.

Now the choice is yours. Will you continue to dream of your ideal supplier or are you ready to have one for real?

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