In today’s competitive market, delivering an exceptional shopping experience is as important as ever for apparel and fashion brands.

With rising customer acquisition costs and constant margin pressures, maximizing the value of each shopping session is essential to stay relevant and avoid the fate of so many other apparel and fashion retailers that fizzled out of style or closed.

This is where outfit recommendations shine. As we’ll cover in this article, outfit recommendations offer apparel companies a powerful solution to inspire online shoppers, increase website conversion rates and basket sizes, and lower operational costs.

Join us as we explore the types of outfit recommendations, their use throughout the customer journey, and their potential to create lasting long-term value for both companies and their customers.

What are Outfit Recommendations?

Outfit recommendations use visual merchandising and styling technology to show how a product can be styled or worn with other complementary clothes and accessories, making it easy for customers to shop for complete looks.

This retail technology goes beyond basic recommendations like “similar items” and “you may also like” by bundling products into complete outfits.

For example, if a customer is looking at a shirt, an outfit recommendation suggests the best jacket, pants, shoe, or handbag that goes with it.

Types of Outfit Recommendations

There are two primary types of outfit recommendations:

Shop the Look
How to Style

Shop the Look

“Shop the Look” presents customers with the exact outfit worn by the model in a picture, also known as “As Seen on Model” or “Get the Look.”

For example, if a model is showcasing a shirt along with pants, earrings, and a handbag sold by the retailer, all of these items would be featured in a single outfit recommendation.

How to Style

“How to Style” presents shoppers with multiple outfit ideas centered around a main product, usually including 3 to 4 outfits featuring items from the entire catalog.

For instance, if the main product is a skirt, several outfits featuring various tops, jackets, and accessories that complement the featured skirt can be shown.

How to Use Outfit Recommendations

Outfit recommendations are versatile and can be used throughout the customer journey to improve discovery, compel shoppers to buy, and encourage return visitors.

Discovery and Inspiration

***Description:*** *Example of using “How to Style” suggestions to boost discovery and offer styling inspiration*

Outfit recommendations help apparel shoppers discover new clothing and find styling inspiration.

Like a mannequin in a retail store, they highlight the unique collections of the store and help inspire customers with ideas of how an item can be worn for different occasions or how an item will look on either the shoppers themselves.

Displaying outfit recommendations on the product detail page (PDP) is particularly effective for showcasing more of a collection and aiding discovery for shoppers who bypass the homepage or collection page and instead arrive directly on a PDP – e.g., traffic from Google shopping ads or promotional emails.

They also support the "capsule wardrobe" trend, helping customers style key pieces, simplify clothing choices, and embrace sustainable shopping choices.

Boosting Conversion Rates and Increasing Average Order Value (AOV)

Visual displays significantly impact sales, and outfit recommendations are ideal for showcasing apparel and accessory products.

Outfit suggestions mimic the high-touch service provided by personal stylists in stores like Nordstrom. However instead of a human providing styling suggestions, outfit suggestions use predictive and deep learning models to algorithmically understand customer preferences and deliver personalized recommendations online.

A well-styled and personalized outfit suggestion not only helps customers visualize complete looks and understand what the store offers but also persuades shoppers to buy both the featured garment and additional items, boosting conversion rates and AOV.

One apparel client saw an 8% increase in revenue per visitor (through a combination of increased conversion rate and AOV) after deploying our personalized outfits on their product pages.

Reviving Abandoned Carts

Outfit recommendations excel in personalized email marketing. Traditional abandoned cart emails often fail to capture customers' attention, relying on gimmicky subject lines and discount codes.

Personalizing abandoned cart emails with outfit recommendations makes them stand out and offers a unique solution to a common e-commerce problem.

Adding styling ideas in emails not only makes emails more visually engaging but also improves the customer experience, helping retailers recover lost sales without discounts.

***Description:*** *Example of outfits suggestions shown in abandoned cart email example*

More Repeat Customers and Higher Customer Retention

71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized communications and 78% are more likely to make a repeat purchase from companies that personalize.

Re-engaging existing customers with personalized outfit recommendations can be a great way to encourage return visitors and repeat purchases, capitalizing on these trends.

For example, using past product view and purchase data, retailers can create a personalized experience across the customer journey by showing shoppers outfits that feature items a shopper has previously shown interest in or purchased.

Benefits

Key benefits of outfit recommendations include:

1. Improved Shopping Experience

Outfit recommendations make the shopping experience more imaginative and inspiring, leading to higher satisfaction and customer loyalty.

2. Increased Revenue per Visitor (RPV)

Outfit recommendation technology helps retailers boost conversion rates and inspire multiple-item purchases, increasing RPV.

3. Saves Time and Money

Automated styling and bundling technology streamlines merchandising and styling operations, allowing resources to be redirected to other revenue-generating activities.

Summary

Having a great visual merchandising strategy is key to retail success. In the highly competitive e-commerce apparel space, where customer acquisition costs are rising and margins are under pressure, investing in outfit recommendation technology offers apparel brands and retailers an opportunity to deliver an inspiring and personalized shopping experience to stand out from the crowd, increase website conversion rates and basket sizes, and lower operational costs.

To learn more about outfit recommendations, contact SabinoDB.

More From SabinoDB

Sources/Notes:

Salesforce. “Despite Challenges, Retailers Find Ways to Build Loyalty and Grow Wallet Share” Retrieved. https://www.salesforce.com/blog/retail-industry-trends/
McKinsey & Company. “The Value of Getting Personalization Right – Or Wrong – Is Multiplying.” Retrieved. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying

About:

SabinoDB is a leading e-commerce and marketing technology company committed to helping companies grow their business by making data and technology their competitive advantage. Our solutions include Digital Advertising, E-Commerce Personalization, “Shop The Look” Outfit Recommendations, Direct Mail and Catalog Response Models, and Web Development. If you are interested in learning about how SabinoDB can help your company, please reach out directly to Ryan Hammon. Email - ryan.hammon@sabinodb.com Phone - (415) 847-8103.

Create a Personalized Shopping Journey with Outfit Recommendations