Walmart unveils virtual fitting room to push shoppers to buy more clothes

As some shoppers reduce their spending on clothing, Walmart is rolling out a new tool it hopes will nudge them to click the “buy” button.

Starting this week, customers can use a virtual try-on tool to see how a shirt or other garment would look on their own body. It’s the latest feature the company has added to its website due to the acquisition of Zeekit, a virtual fitting room startup.

The retailer launched its first iteration of the tool in March, which allowed customers to choose a model similar to them in body type, skin tone and hair color. It later expanded from 50 to 120 models. Other retailers have also experimented with virtual try-ons, including Amazon, which has a tool that uses augmented reality to allow customers to see how a shoe would look on their feet.

The newest feature for Walmart, “Be Your Own Model,” uses algorithms and machine learning technology originally used to develop more accurate topographic maps. Shoppers can use it to virtually try on more than 270,000 items across Walmart’s private labels, select items from national brands such as Champion, Levi’s and Hanes and some sold on its third-party marketplace.

Customers can choose either option, using their own image or a similar model. With the personalized tool, the website uses a scan of a person’s body to give a more realistic sense of how a fabric drapes, a color looks, or where a sleeve or seam hits—without ever stepping foot in a store.

Walmart is unveiling the new tool at a time when it has become more difficult to sell new outfits. As inflation drives up the prices of food, rent and more, consumers are starting to make decisions about where to cut back. The big-box retailer joined a growing list of companies, including Target and Best Buy, that cut their full-year profit outlook as people buy less discretionary merchandise. Walmart now expects that the adjusted earnings per share will fall between 9% and 11% for the whole year.

For the discount shopper, however, budget-consciousness can come with a potential silver lining. The company raised its sales forecast in July as it got a boost from customers seeking cheap groceries and essentials, even as they buy fewer high-margin items. It also draws more customers with annual household incomes of $100,000 or more, the company said on its August earnings call.

Denise Incandela, executive vice president of apparel and private labels at Walmart US, said she wants to encourage more of those customers to fill their closets at Walmart as well.

One way to do that is through virtual fitting, which makes shopping for clothes more fun and easier while taking some of the guesswork out of it, she said.

It’s also why Walmart has expanded beyond basics like socks and t-shirts to more fashionable merchandise with higher price tags. It has a growing collection of private labels, including Sofia Jeans, developed with actress Sofia Vergara; Free Assembly, a menswear and womenswear brand designed by the former chief creative officer at Bonobos; and Love & Sports, an activewear brand created with fashion designer Michelle Smith and SoulCycle instructor Stacey Griffith. Its website also carries more familiar national brands, such as fitness footwear and apparel maker Reebok and children’s clothing brand Justice.

Walmart has largely launched these elevated brands on its website and then added some of these merchandise to select stores. Its website drives higher average selling prices for garments than stores, Incandela said, so the retailer wants to make sure customers have fewer reasons to abandon items in their virtual shopping carts — such as struggling to pick a color or debating how a dress might fit .

So far, she said, Walmart has seen a boost from the first version of its virtual fitting room tool, “Choose My Model.” She declined to say the purchase conversion rate, but said it is higher for online shoppers who use the tool compared to those who don’t.

“We’re kind of doubling down based on the consumer insights,” she said.

Now, she said, it’s thinking about where to go next — such as encouraging shoppers to check out the technology as an alternative to fitting rooms or making the feature available for men’s and children’s clothing or eyewear.