PC: CNBC

Wal-Mart is launching a new tool, which it hopes will persuade some of its customers to click the buy button as they curtail clothing purchases.

Shoppers will have the ability to use a virtual try-on tool to see how an article of clothing might look on their own body this week. Recently, the company acquired a startup called Zeekit and made it the newest addition to its website.

In March, the store unveiled its initial version of the tool, which offered customers a choice of 50 models, based on their body type, skin tone and hair color. Much later, it expanded to 120 different models. Amazon offers a tool that uses augmented reality to allow customers to see how the shoe would look on their feet. Virtual try-on is something other stores have been experimenting with as well.

If you’re willing to get in front of the camera and know that technology is behind your improved photographs, Walmart’s newest option will serve you well. Approximately 270,000 products from Walmart’s private brands, some popular national brands, like Champion, Levi’s, and Hanes, and some items from its third-party marketplace, are all available for customers to virtually try-on before they purchase them.

A customer can select either a model who looks like them or their own photograph. To have a sense of how clothes would feel without actually going inside a store, this site allows people to customize the shape of their body to be scanned.

With the rise in food, rent, and other costs as a result of inflation, consumers are beginning to decide where to cut costs. Walmart is introducing this new tool at a time when selling clothing has become more challenging. Consumers now buy less discretionary goods, forcing big-box retailers, including Target and Best Buy, to lower their profit forecasts. Walmart anticipates an adjusted earnings per share decline from 9-11% for the entire year.

While consumers are purchasing fewer high-margin items, they are still searching for inexpensive groceries and necessities, which has caused the company to raise its sales predictions for the month of July. On the company’s August earnings call, the company indicated that it was also attracting more consumers with family incomes over $100,000. According to Denise Incandela, executive vice president of apparel and private brands at Walmart U.S., more of these customers should stock their closets at Walmart.

This article explained one way to accomplish this which, according to the speaker, will remove some of the guesswork from buying clothes and make the process more enjoyable and easy.

They’ve expanded from necessary staples like socks and T-shirts into expensive and stylish high-end apparel.
The company has several brands exclusive to them, such as Sofia Jeans (designed by Sofia Vergara), Free Assembly (designed by the former chief creative officer of Bonobos), and Love & Sports (designed by Michelle Smith and SoulCycle instructor Stacey Griffith).

Besides Justice Kidswear and Reebok, it offers more nationally recognized brands on its website.
These premium brands were primarily introduced by Walmart on their internet, and some of that stuff was later added to particular stores.

Incandela revealed that the retailer would like to have fewer reasons for customers to abandon the process of selecting and buying products, such as having a hard time deciding on the colour or not knowing whether or not an item of clothing will fit.

She claimed that so far, Walmart has benefited from the initial release of its “Choose My Model” virtual fitting room application. Although she wouldn’t disclose the conversion rate, she did indicate that it is higher for online buyers who utilise the programme than for those who don’t.

According to consumer insights, she stated, “We’re kind of doubling down.”

She added that it is about deciding where to go, whether to have customers use the technology instead of fitting rooms or to include functionality for men’s and children’s apparel or eyewear.