Amazon thinks AI helping you buy clothes is better than you sending back whatever doesn't fit

Black Friday 2020 - Så gör du din shopping grönare (Image credit: Amazon)

Amazon's replacing 'Try Before You Buy' with a 'Virtual Try-On.'
Swapping a physical try-on for a digital one is becoming somewhat of a theme in online retail.
Virtual Try-On joins other features like AI-powered size recommendations.

Amazon would rather you try clothes on virtually instead of testing their fits at home. The company is officially retiring its “Try Before You Buy” program at the end of January, and in its place, Amazon wants you to trust its AI tools to find your perfect fit.

Try Before You Buy launched in 2017 as Prime Wardrobe and has let buyers get up to six items, try them on at home, and only pay for what they keep while sending back the rest. No dressing room with harsh fluorescent lighting is necessary. It's very popular, but Amazon has decided the program is not good enough.

Amazon believes its AI tools are all you need to find your best look. One might suspect this also has something to do with the company’s increasing investment in AI-driven shopping features. After all, why wait for a box of clothes when an algorithm can tell you which pair of jeans will love you back?

“Given the combination of Try Before You Buy only scaling to a limited number of items and customers increasingly using our new AI-powered features like virtual try-on, personalized size recommendations, review highlights and improved size charts to make sure they find the right fit, we’re phasing out the Try Before You Buy option," Amazon said in a released statement.

AI e-commerce

The tools Amazon points to are a different way of thinking about online shopping for clothes. Virtual try-on is an augmented reality feature that lets you see how shoes, glasses, or lipstick will look without leaving your couch. Meanwhile, the personalized size recommendation system uses your purchase history, return patterns, and feedback from other customers to predict your ideal size.

For a more conversational approach, there’s the Rufus AI chatbot, ready to answer all your questions and suggest products based on your shopping habits.

For fans of Try Before You Buy, this news might sting. The idea of confidently trying on clothes before committing is hard to replace, and AI, no matter how advanced, doesn’t have the tactile joy of slipping into something that just fits. Still, Amazon says that its free return policy will remain intact for most apparel purchases, so you can always fall back on the classic “order three sizes and hope for the best” strategy.

Amazon’s decision to swap physical try-ons for digital solutions isn’t just a company quirk; it’s part of a more significant trend in retail. AI is becoming increasingly popular as an aid to Google and other retailers' online shopping.

Whether shoppers will embrace this new era of virtual assistance or will long for the days of box-filled try-on sessions at home remains to be seen.

You might also like...

TOPICS

Eric Hal Schwartz is a freelance writer for TechRadar with more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of the world and technology. For the last five years, he served as head writer for Voicebot.ai and was on the leading edge of reporting on generative AI and large language models. He's since become an expert on the products of generative AI models, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini, and every other synthetic media tool. His experience runs the gamut of media, including print, digital, broadcast, and live events. Now, he's continuing to tell the stories people want and need to hear about the rapidly evolving AI space and its impact on their lives. Eric is based in New York City.