Now, let me share a personal experience. Summer’s over, and it’s time for coats and jackets. I’ve added a coat to my cart but haven’t checked it out yet—I’m still deciding. The model wearing it is 177 cm tall, in size S, and the colour looks great against her dark skin. But how will it look on me? I’m of average height, with wider hips, pale skin, and a different pants style than the one shown. I wish I could try it on.

Let’s not forget that staged product imagery serves an important purpose—engaging customers. I’m not downplaying the value of product photos; it’s essential to view an item from different angles to assess the fabric and other details. However e-commerce can’t meet all customer needs through images, especially when selling internationally.
Beyond the common challenge of finding the right size, customers also mentally assess how an item will look on their unique body. This can be tough when the models don’t resemble them. For instance, some participants who wear hijabs mentioned that the overall look of a dress might change with a headscarf. One said, “I can imagine a dress on me when I see it on a hanger, but with my headscarf, the look can be totally different. It would be helpful to see a dress shown both with and without a headscarf.”

A British Indian man shared a similar challenge. As someone from an ethnic minority not often represented in e-commerce, he once ordered several shirts in different colors to find one that matched his skin tone best. Take Zara, a retailer with stores in 96 countries, as an example. One participant in the study mentioned, “I don’t pay attention to the pictures or models. They’re too editorial, and I couldn’t relate to the models even when I wore sizes S/M before my pregnancy.” Another shopper prefers to read customer reviews with pictures, looking for someone with a similar body type to see how the item fits.

E-commerce has made strides in showcasing different skin tones and body shapes, but are customers actually noticing? Does diversity improve their online shopping experience? What seems to be missing is inclusion—showing the same item on various skin tones and body shapes, so customers can better imagine it on themselves.

While conventional online shopping doesn’t let customers touch or feel the product, virtual try-on technology might bridge that gap. After assessing the result of the virtual try-on, some study participants said they could “feel” how an item would look on them. “I can imagine the fit in my head, but with virtual try-on, I can feel how it might look on me.”

Despite the benefits of virtual try-ons, not everyone is ready to upload their photos to third-party websites. Privacy concerns, as one of the main reasons, or simply not having a suitable photo often hold them back. We’ll explore this issue in more detail in a future post.