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Answering fit questions before they turn into returns
Clothing has an unusual property: the question that stops somebody buying and the reason they send it back are the same question. Will this fit. Everything a fashion assistant is worth is concentrated in answering that well, from published measurements rather than from guesswork, and in being honest that a garment measurement is not a promise about a body.
What people actually type
Not the questions on your FAQ page. These are the phrasings that arrive in a chat window, lowercase and unpunctuated, and the material has to answer them in those words rather than in yours.
- am i between sizes in this
- does this come up small
- what size is the model wearing
- how tall is the model
- what is the actual chest measurement on a medium
- can i exchange for a different size
- can i return sale items
- does this shrink in the wash
- is it true to size
- will you get this back in a size 12
- how long do i have to send it back
- can i return something bought in store by post
What to feed it
In rough order of how much work each one takes off the front desk. Every one of these is a document you almost certainly already have.
| Your size guide as a measurement table | Not just the letter or number, but the garment measurements behind it: chest, waist, hip, inside leg, sleeve, and whether the figure is the body measurement or the flat garment measurement. Those two get confused constantly and the confusion is the return. |
|---|---|
| Model measurements and the size worn | Height and the size on the model for each shoot, wherever you record it. Shoppers reason by comparison, so a single line saying the model is a given height and wears a small does more for conversion than three paragraphs of description. |
| Fit notes by line and by block | Which of your lines run small, which are cut oversized, which sit high on the waist, which shrink slightly. Buyers and merchandisers know this and it rarely reaches a page. Write it down at block or collection level, because that is the level at which it stays true. |
| Fabric composition and care | What it is made of, whether it stretches, whether it shrinks, whether it can go in a machine, whether it is lined. Care questions arrive after purchase and answering them well is what stops a washing accident becoming a faulty goods claim. |
| Exchange and refund terms, kept separate | Whether you truly exchange or whether you refund and ask the customer to reorder, how long that takes, and what happens if the replacement size is gone by then. Customers ask for an exchange and shops usually offer a refund, and the gap between those two is worth stating outright. |
| Sale, promotion and final sale exclusions | Which items are excluded from returns, whether a discount code changes the window, and how a refund is calculated when a multibuy is broken up. This is the most argued-over material in fashion retail and the least clearly published. |
What has to reach a person
Which size a particular person should order
A visitor who gives you their usual size in another brand is asking for a judgement, and the assistant has no basis for one. What it can do is quote the garment measurements, quote the model's height and size, and quote the published fit note if the line runs small.
The distinction is worth being strict about: reading out a measurement table is answering, predicting a fit is advising. The first reduces returns and the second causes them.
Whether a size will come back in stock
Sizes sell through unevenly and the missing size is usually the middle of the curve. Unless you have connected a source that holds stock, the assistant cannot see whether size twelve exists, and a guess sends somebody back to the site tomorrow for nothing.
A garment that has failed after wear
A seam that has gone, a zip that has broken, colour that has run. This is a consumer guarantee question rather than a returns question, it carries different rights and a different timescale, and it needs somebody to look at photographs.
The wording when it cannot help
This is the message the assistant returns when nothing in the material covers the question. It is written by you rather than generated, which matters here more than anywhere: it is the sentence a stranger reads at the worst moment.
I cannot tell you which size to order, because that depends on how you like things to fit. I can give you the measurements for each size, the height and size of the model in the photos, and our exchange and returns terms. Ask us and somebody on the team will help you pick.
It names what it cannot do, gives the route that can, and offers to take a message. A refusal that only apologises leaves the person exactly where they started.
Rules and duties that shape the answer
Sale exclusions do not override a faulty goods claim
In most markets, marking an item as final sale limits the right to change your mind but does not remove the protection a customer has if the goods are faulty. An assistant that reads a blunt no returns on sale items line and applies it to a split seam is stating something the shop cannot rely on.
Index the exclusions with that carve-out written into the same document, so the assistant repeats both halves together.
Seasonal churn makes item level indexing go stale fast
A fashion catalogue turns over several times a year and a large part of it is gone within weeks. Anything indexed at item level starts decaying immediately, and an assistant describing last season's coat in the present tense reads as carelessness rather than a stale cache.
Index the durable layer instead: the size guide, the fit notes, the fabric glossary, the returns terms. Those hold across seasons and cover the questions that actually get typed.
A garment measurement is not a body measurement
Publishing that a medium has a chest of a given width flat is a fact about a piece of cloth. Whether it fits depends on ease, cut, fabric stretch and what the wearer wants. Material that blurs the two teaches the assistant to answer confidently about bodies, which is exactly the confidence that produces a return.
Never, whatever the documents say
Out of bounds
- Which size a specific person should buy.
- Whether a particular size is in stock right now.
- Whether a garment will suit a described body shape.
- That a sale item cannot be returned when it has arrived faulty.
- Whether a discontinued line will be produced again.
Playbooks for this trade
One page per recurring question, written for a fashion retailer rather than in general. Each carries the phrasings, the material that answers them, a reply worth copying, and the line where it has to stop.
- Reading out measurements instead of predicting a fitA garment measurement is a fact about cloth. Turning it into a prediction about a body is what produces the return.
- Exchanges, reorders and the size that sells out while you waitMost clothing shops refund and ask you to reorder rather than swapping. Saying so plainly is the highest value line on the page.
- The three separate waits hiding inside one refundInspection, processing and the card issuer are three separate waits. Naming all three prevents the chasing message on day four.
- Size level availability and the hole in the middle of the runFashion stock is a question about one size inside a line, not about the line. Why the middle of the curve goes first.
- When a return stops being a policy lookup and becomes a decisionPast the window, tag removed, worn once. These are judgement calls a shop makes, and an assistant answering them decides them wrongly.
- One order, several lines, and they did not all leave togetherClothing orders split by line and by drop. A despatch email covers one garment, and a line can leave an order after the money was taken.
- The date in their head belongs to somebody elseThe deadline is an event, not a preference. Cut-offs, pre-order windows and a collection counter that closes before the shop does.
- Two histories end with the same mark on a sleeveA security tag left on, a pulled thread, a dropped hem. Transit damage and a garment fault look identical and take different routes.
- Three numbers on one swing ticket and none of them is wrongWas, now and further reduced are three numbers on one ticket. Codes that die on sale lines, and one size cleared while the run stays full price.
- Cancel it and the size goes back on the site within the hourOn a seasonal line, cancelling hands the size to somebody else for good. Pre-orders and stocked pieces cancel on different terms.
- The document they want is the one with the price removedThe commonest paperwork request here is for a document with the price taken off, and it has to be decided before the parcel is packed.
- Ecru, oatmeal and stone describe nothing on their ownEcru, oatmeal and stone are not descriptions. Drape is shown on video, and fastening questions are product facts rather than site ones.
- A saved size profile is not the same kind of data as a postcodeSaved measurements are body data and do not feel like an address. Deleting the history also deletes the proof behind a later claim.
- The argument is about whether they wore itAn inspection call about perfume, makeup or wear reads as an accusation. Shrinkage arguments have two sides and no document settles them.
- The clock keeps running while they cannot get inThe returns portal sits behind the login and the clock does not pause. Here being unable to sign in genuinely stops something.
- Two people ask about the wool and only one of them has a rashTwo people ask about wool and want different answers. A composition label covers the main fabric and almost nothing else on the garment.
- There is no warranty on a coat, which answers nothingClothes carry no guarantee card, and that is not the end of the matter. Durability, alteration and a replacement that fits differently.
- The hours on the door are not the hours the website runs toThree sets of hours and only one is on the door. Fitting rooms close first, and the collection point often closes before the tills do.
Questions
- Will answering fit questions actually reduce returns?
- It reduces the size-related ones, which are the bulk. A customer who reads the flat chest measurement and the model's height before ordering makes a better guess than one who ordered two sizes to try. What it will not do is fix a fit note that nobody ever wrote down, so the value depends on the size guide behind it.
- How do we keep it from talking about lines we have dropped?
- Index at category and guide level rather than per product, and re-crawl your site when a season changes so the material moves with the catalogue. The material it reads is the material you choose, so a dropped line disappears from its answers as soon as it disappears from your pages.
- Can it handle the exchange question honestly?
- Yes, and it is worth being blunt in the source material. If you refund and ask the customer to reorder rather than swapping the item, write that. Customers who expect a true exchange and get a refund contact you twice, and both contacts are avoidable with one clear sentence.
Keep reading
- 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.
- For a furniture retailerLead times, delivery access and assembly dominate furniture enquiries. What an assistant answers well, and where it must take a name.
- For a electronics retailerCompatibility, warranty and returns on opened items answer well from your own terms. Firmware level setup advice does not.
- Every business typeWhat an assistant has to know before it can answer for a trade.
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.