Through the Fitting Room Door

 
 
 
 
 
When customers walk through a store’s front door, retailers can thank their merchandising and marketing efforts. But apparel retailers know there’s another threshold customers often must cross to ensure a sale — the fitting room.

Despite its relatively small footprint, the fitting room is a critical conversion area, one often viewed as a necessary evil and a loss prevention headache. Envision Retail, a London-based consultancy, found that customers who use a fitting room are 71 percent more likely to buy — and buy twice as much — than those simply browsing the sales floor. If those customers are provided with service while in the fitting room, the study says, they will buy nearly three times more than the casual browser.

Fashion merchants have long tinkered with mirrors that flatter and lighting that enhances — even adding space for friends or spouses — all in an effort to make trying on garments more appealing. And associates with wardrobing skills can help customers find the right outfit for the right occasion in the right size, but given the slow economy, stores are relying on fewer salespeople.

So once the door closes on the fitting room, does the window to service and up-sell slam shut, too? Probably, unless the associate knocks on the door at precisely the moment the customer needs assistance.

One-touch assistance
The solution could be as simple as pushing a button, says Marge Laney, president of Alert Technologies. Victoria’s Secret has been a customer since 1995, when it implemented the Page Alert Fitting Room Call System, which offers access to service from the fitting room, as well as reports that reflect the call and response times in its stores.

Victoria’s Secret piloted the latest version of Alert Technologies’ Smart Button Fitting Room Service System in 10 stores in 2008 and 2009. Its New York flagship store on 58th Street and Lexington Avenue was the first to use Alert’s Smart Switch technology, which added the occupancy indication and reporting piece to the call system, making it a complete fitting room service platform. Victoria’s Secret is considering rolling out Smart Switch to more than 1,000 locations nationwide.

The Smart Button Fitting Room Service System is based on a network of devices that communicate with each other and a central unit. The entire network is connected via a single wire; retailers need only power and a phone line or Ethernet to support the system. (A wireless version will be available this spring, Laney says.)

The system incorporates the Page Alert Call System as the customer access component, Laney explains, but sales associates now have 100 percent visibility and control of the fitting room. At a glance, they can see occupied and available fitting rooms as well as customers requiring service. Additionally, the system captures and distributes call and response data as well as fitting room load by hour.

“Retailers can use the information to set load standards as well as monitor and score each store accordingly,” Laney says. With a commitment to branding, the new solution offers each customer a complete custom system, including custom designed and produced call buttons (seen in Victoria’s Secret stores), fixtures and outputs. Data is delivered from Alert Technologies via a custom collection scheme or by daily e-mail, so retailers have total access to information that reflects a true picture of the fitting-room experience.