Trying on clothes, Virtually

One of the problems with niche marketing of clothing is knowing what measurements to produce clothes for. The standard sizes that we currently have represent averages that fit some people better than others. If you wanted your clothes to fit perfectly, you would have to have them custom made which would be very expensive. Or would it.

Imagine that you have an avatar that actually corresponds to your measurements. This may not be ideal for a fantasy life but it is ideal for clothes shopping in a virtual world. Let's push this just a bit and say that you have multiple avatar that reflect your usual weight gains and losses throughout the year.

So you decide to go clothes shopping in a virtual world. First, you step on the scale to get your current weight. And then you select the avatar developed for that weight. As you look at items in the store, you select ones that you like and have them put on your avatar. This provides several benefits over our current ways of shopping.

First, you cans see how this particular items looks on you. Not every item will look as good on each body type. Second, you can try the item in different colors and fabrics to see which one works best for you. Third, you can look at yourself from all angles without having to crane your neck as you would in a store with those full length mirrors. Fourth, you can see how this new items goes with things you already have. Say it is a new jacket and you wonder if it will go with some slacks you already have. Well, just put the virtual copy of those slacks on your avatar and you can easily see. Fifth, you can get the opinion of friends. Have a friend teleport to the store and have a look. Maybe you thought that lime green jacket went pretty well with the slate blue pants but your friend might have a different opinion. Sixth, you could consult an expert (software) fashion adviser who could tell you if certain colors, textures, and styles work together and what they are appropriate for.

Finally, when you are done, the specifications for the items of clothing can be sent directly to the clothing manufacturer, fed into the tailoring machine, and your items will be sent to you with a few days. Stretching the imagination, one can see a day when these tailoring machines may be located locally, so you can just go pick up your clothes in a couple hours like you might pick up your dry cleaning.

Of course, the specifications would then be added to your inventory and the next time you go shopping, or it you were trying to figure out what to wear to a particular event, all of these items would be available to try on.

Some of the elements of this scenario can be accomplished today. Some require a little imagination and some advances in technology. However, we can't consider the possible uses of a new technology in a world frozen in the present. We have to consider it in a world that has been changed by the technology.

Clothing Sales in Second Life

Mass marketing became very popular in the middle of the last century. There were, as far as I can see, two reasons for this. First, the mass production of goods brought down the price making them affordable by a much larger number of people. And, second, mass appeal advertising (possibly due to advances in media technology) created the demand needed to justify mass production. However, before the end of the century, pundits were predicting the end of mass marketing. Alvin Toffler was one of those pundits, if I recall correctly. And stepping up to provide an excellent example of a new way of marketing, Dell Computer started allowing customers to go to their website and customize their personal computers.

Now, lets think about what this means for a moment. The marketing paradigm shifted substantially. In the mass marketing paradigm, product designers created products that can be manufactured in great quantity with little variety. Then they endeavored to convince consumers that these products are what they needed. In the niche marketing paradigm, consumers design products that will be produced in small quantity with much more variety. And nobody has to convince them to buy as they have specified exactly what they want.

But, some problems arise with extreme niche marketing. First, how to do you make custom products at an affordable price? And, second, how do you get the specifications for the custom product from the customer to the producer. As to the first, I can only say that making more flexible automated production lines seems to be the answer. That is not my area of expertise. So, I will leave that to the process control people. However, the answer to the second is virtual worlds and that is something I know a little about.

Next time, I will describe the process of buying clothing in a virtual world that dovetails very nicely with this concept of niche marketing.