A New Approach To Selling Clothes Online

Here is an online clothing retailer with a twist: Myshape.com offers you clothing by shape, not by size. How? It collects all the measurements of the clothing it carries and puts them into a database, and then asks its consumers to enter in their measurements, from which it builds individual profiles. Each profile gets a shape code, for example, shape S is "curvy front and side profiles." Users can also bypass the measurements and just pick their shape codes from the descriptions on the site. Once a shopper has her profile in the system, the store only shows clothing that will flatter her shape type.

Since it's based on measurements and proportions, not the quasi-arbitrary size label that designers put on their clothes, the return rate on purchases is supposedly lower. It increases the likelihood of a clothing purchase that fits better and looks better on you. Is this a trend in merchandising that will catch on?