Finding the Best-Fitting Bra With Technology’s Help

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Friday, August 17, 2012

Finding the Best-Fitting Bra With Technology’s Help

By ELIZABETH OLSON

ONLINE retailers like HerRoom, True&Co and some stalwarts like Maidenform are trying to reinvent shopping for bras, which account for nearly half of the $14 billion annual lingerie market.

The retailers are vying to draw women away from in-store fitting rooms and persuade them that it is more convenient and private to use new online tools to find the best-fitting bras.

Proper fit is so central for women that 20,000 of them signed up within 36 hours after True&Co, a San Francisco start-up retailer for intimate apparel, opened its Web site in May. Two former Microsoft employees devised a computerized method to connect customers to a correct bra fit.

“It’s one of the most emotional purchases out there,” said Michelle Lam, one of those former employees and chief executive of True&Co. “There are a lot of body image issues around buying a bra.”

Specialty stores, along with outlet stores and Web sites, are siphoning off bra sales from traditional sellers like department stores. Victoria’s Secret and Soma Intimates (owned by Chico’s), which also have Web sites, had $3.6 billion in bra sales last year, according to NPD Group research.

Department stores trailed with $1.1 billion in sales, according to NPD figures. Online sales are still a small percentage of overall bra and intimate sales, NPD estimates. So far in 2012, sales have risen 1.5 percent at outlets, mass merchandisers and the Internet, according to NPD figures.

“E-commerce is becoming more popular because women don’t want the same experience they’ve had” in the stores, said Susan Anderson, a retail analyst for Citi Research. “Department stores haven’t changed their intimates departments in decades, and consumers are more willing to buy now online.”

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.