Walmart launches virtual fitting rooms to drive clothing sales

Walmart has unveiled a new virtual fitting room to help drive clothing sales, as many reduce their spend amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Starting this week, Walmart customers can use a virtual try-on tool to see how clothing items would look on their bodies once purchased.

The move comes after the Big Box retailer acquired virtual fitting room startup, Zeekfit, as part of a mission to add to its digital offering.

The first iteration of the try-on tool, which allowed its shoppers to choose a model that resembles them in their body type, was launched in March.

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It was then expanded from the original 50 models to 120. Now customers can use their own body to measure the clothes virtually.

Walmart is not the first retailer to experiment with virtual try-on, its main rival Amazon has also implemented a tool which use augmented reality (AR) to allow customers to see how a shoe will look on their foot.

The new feature, coined “Be Your Own Model,” makes use of a mixture of machine learning and AI which was initially used to develop topographic maps.

Shoppers are now able to see how over 270,000 clothing items on Walmart’s ecommerce site will look on their bodies virtually.