Playbook, online store
There is no such thing as a size on a general store
A shop selling one category can publish one chart and defend it. A shop selling across categories cannot, because the word size means a chest measurement in one aisle, a shoe length in the next, a thread gauge in a third and a capacity in litres in a fourth. There is no single document to point at, and the charts that do exist came from different suppliers who agree about nothing.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for sizing and fit holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- Size is not one concept here. It is a chest measurement, a shoe length, a gauge, a capacity and a set of box dimensions depending on which part of the catalogue somebody is standing in, and no single chart covers two of those.
- Every chart arrives from a different supplier with a different basis, so a shopper who takes one label on this site does not take the same label two products over, and there is no house standard to fall back on.
- The question underneath is nearly always whether a thing will fit a space or a person the assistant knows nothing about, and the only answerable version of it is the published measurement rather than the judgement being requested.
- Packed dimensions matter more than product dimensions on a shop, because the item is delivered in a box that has to get through a door and up a stair, and almost nobody publishes the box.
How it arrives
- what are the exact dimensions of this
- will it fit through a standard doorway
- is this true to size
- what size should i order
- is the measurement in inches or cm
- how heavy is it in the box
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Every supplier size chart, transcribed and attributed | Typed out as tables rather than left as images, and labelled with the brand or supplier it belongs to. Attribution is not tidiness here: it is the thing that stops one supplier's chart being applied to another supplier's product, which is the characteristic wrong answer in this category. |
|---|---|
| Packed dimensions and packed weight | The box, not the item. Length, width, depth and weight as it arrives, because that is what has to come through a front door and up a staircase, and because a two person lift is something the customer would like to know before delivery day rather than on it. |
| Whether a figure is the item or the space it needs | Clearance for a door to open, a gap for ventilation, a minimum recess. A measurement that is correct and unqualified produces a customer who fitted the number and not the object, and that is a return with carriage on it both ways. |
| The unit system each chart is published in | Which system the chart is stated in, and whether any converted figures on the site are rounded. A rounded conversion becomes the number somebody buys against, and the difference is small enough to be invisible and large enough to matter. |
The reply
I can give you what is published rather than a recommendation. This line uses that brand's own size chart rather than a house one, and on their chart the measurement you are asking about is listed on our sizing page under their name [1]. Worth checking against a garment or an item you already own rather than against a size label from elsewhere on the site, because the charts here come from different suppliers and do not line up with each other. For anything going into a space, use the packed dimensions rather than the product dimensions, since the box is bigger than the thing and it is the box that has to come through the door [2]. If you tell me what you are fitting it into, I still cannot make the call, but I can read you every measurement we publish.
It refuses the recommendation immediately and then spends the whole reply being useful within the refusal, which is what stops it reading as a brush-off. Naming the supplier chart is what prevents the customer generalising from a size they took elsewhere on the same site. The packed dimension point is volunteered rather than asked for, because it is the measurement that produces the expensive returns and almost nobody thinks to ask about it.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor asks which size to order for a particular person or space, whether two products fit together, or wants a measurement the published material does not carry.
I can read out any measurement we publish but I cannot tell you which one will fit, and I would rather not guess at something you would have to send back. Leave your name, an email and what you are trying to fit, and somebody who can check will come back to you.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never recommend a size for a person, since the assistant has no measurements of them and a size recommendation that is wrong becomes a return the shop pays carriage on twice.
- Never confirm that something will fit a space the customer has described, because the description is a number in a message and the object arrives in a box that is larger than it.
- Never convert between unit systems, as a rounded conversion of a chart figure turns into the measurement somebody buys against.
- Never apply one supplier's chart to another supplier's product, which is the standing hazard of a shop that carries many brands and looks like helpfulness right up until the parcel arrives.
Questions
- Can it tell somebody what size to order?
- No, and it should not try even when it looks obvious. It has no measurements of the person or the room, and the charts on a multi-brand shop disagree with each other. It reads out published figures, which is the part customers cannot easily find.
- Our charts are images from suppliers. Is that a problem?
- It is the problem. An image is invisible to anything reading text, so every chart published that way is a question the assistant has to refuse. Typing them out once is the highest yield hour of work available on a shop like this.
- Why insist on packed dimensions?
- Because the returns caused by a doorway are the most expensive ones a shop handles, and they are entirely avoidable. The customer measured the item because that is the number you published. Publishing the box changes the outcome without changing the product.
Keep reading
- Everything for a online storeDelivery cut-offs, the returns window and restock questions get asked before purchase. The one thing an assistant cannot do is find an order.
- Handling sizing and fit in generalThe highest volume pre-purchase question in clothing and the biggest driver of returns. Quote the chart, never guess a size for a person.
- Sending them to the manufacturer is the reflex that causes the complaintA maker's guarantee and a seller's own obligation are different things, and pointing the customer at the manufacturer is often wrong.
- There was never an account, only an email address on an orderGuest checkout leaves an email with orders behind it and nothing to sign into. Most access problems on a shop start right there.
- The reset was sent. That is the whole of what anybody here knowsThe mail is usually delivered and filtered. Where it lands, how long the link lasts, and why the shop is told nothing either way.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.