The largest retailers in the UK and in Europe are asking customers to send them their sizes. This data will be sent to specialists in an impersonal form to preserve confidentiality.The AppStore has released a special application for the iPhone and theiPad calledShape GB, with which everyone who has turned 18 is asked to send their profile photos and full-face.

This massive study of the forms of the human body is carried out by the research laboratory Selected Research LTD., after receiving an order from major retailers such as Monsoon, NewLook, Next, River Island, Tesco&F, ASOS. 

We are forced to start creating a new size standard. We have clearly become taller and … how should I say it, bulkier in the hips. We will conduct research not only online with the help of the program, but also in reality, traveling around many regions, measuring men and women, including conducting 3D scanning of the figure. Based on the data obtained, we will try to find a new size standard.

Richard Barnes, founder of Selected Research LTD.

Retailers sounded the alarm after a very serious analysis of the goods sold over the year, which can be vividly illustrated by a Russian proverb: «Traded – had fun, counted –shed tears». It turned out that almost 50% of clothing purchased online is returned back precisely because of the discrepancy in its size. And if you can try on clothes in a booth in a regular store, then the online trade will simply write you, at best, its size chart on the website.

Concerned about high returns, retailers gathered to develop a new common standard for men's and women's size grids. By the way, many serious brands, such as, for example, Boden already have sizes for small, tall and standard, and New Look presents collections for ladies with curvy forms.

Russian consumers aimed at online purchases from China also suffer due to the discrepancy of the size grid, even if it is stated in the product description as European. Perhaps the initiative of British retailers will finally solve the problem of successful purchases in online stores and save customers from disappointment.

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