M&S invest in tech to tackle returns culture

It’s not only been a month for retailers collaborating with other retailers. It’s been a month for retailers collaborating with the tech world too.

M&S’s joint venture with Founders Factory – a start up investment and accelerator run by lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman & Henry Lane Fox – continues apace with news that the retailer has invested in specialist clothes fitting company, Texel as part of its ongoing drive to enhance its digital offering.

Texel’s ‘shapeometry’ enables customers to create digital avatars using 3D scanning technology.  Once their avatar is created it helps the customer find the clothes most suited to their shape and size.

The new technology will not only enhance the customer experience, but should help M&S tackle growing returns culture, which it is also seeking to streamline and manage with digital solutions including our own new automated returns pods.

With online returns in the UK predicted to increase by 27.3% in the next five years (Global Data) and receiving clothes that don’t fit cited by customers as the number one reason for returning clothes, it’s not hard to see why sizing tech is being sized up by retailers as an attractive investment.