Men 20-40 need an uncomplicated suit buying process. 

We can make it easier and less stressful for the consumer while giving them confidence in their decision-making process.

We will know our approach is effective when an ongoing relationship between the vendor and customer is established and there is repeat business. Research shows that men—following their initial experience—will stay with a brand or vendor if they are satisfied and comfortable with the suit fit.

Research/Interviews

Men 20-40 of various economic and ethnic backgrounds.

The overarching goal is how to best achieve full retail conversion. Understanding online vs. in-store experience preferences.

Understanding the pain points for a first time suit buyer.What can be done to make the experience easy.

Understanding the pain points of a repeat suit buyer. What can be done to make the experience easy and motivate the customer to return.

Learn what is the common taxonomy in both groups. The focus will be using research to cover multiple pain points focusing mostly on navigation and site experience, accommodating the customers needs and gaining marketing insights.

Findings

Work culture has shifted. The everyday suit is no longer the norm. 

In every interview, “I only buy suits for occasions.”  None of the interviewees  had jobs that required suits.  From this we can understand why few of the men interviewed owned tailored suits that are predictably more costly. Interviewees all had at least one off-the-rack suit, which are both more accessible and affordable.  

The number one reason for a man to buy a suit is for a wedding.

Ways to Buy a Suit

From interviews we learned customers prefer ready-to-wear and an in-store visit is vital for customer confidence in their purchases.

Competitive Analysis

Major takeaway is the 3d suit builder was more of a gimmick than a useful tool.  The builder did help with education to understand thing in real time but it had many steps  and was overwhelming to the user. User still prefer in store for final purchases.

Brands mentioned interviews.

These stores where mentioned in interview as positive suit shop experience.   None of these store have a 3d suit builders and are a combination of online and instore.

Researching online is the beginning of ever customers journey. 

Every gentleman that was interviewed researched suiting online first . The common behavior was to look up a suit for their particular occasion, then see what's available to try on in stores.  

The interviewees’ research consisted of understanding occasions, fit, materials, and style. Customers felt there was a lack of clear and understandable education. With fit being a major concern, online resources for measuring left the customer with a lack of confidence in their ability to measure themselves properly. The in-store experience helps to alleviate the  pressure. 

“I don’t care about current trends just  that I look good.”

What The user really wants.

Our suit buyers need an easier way to buy a suit.  We want to help them through the decision-making and selection process. We have learned that if they haven’t received knowledge handed-down there are two common paths: an unfamiliar and sometimes complicated online process requiring research or a one-on-one experience with an expert in the field—usually a salesperson.

We believe that by that setting up a direct path of easy questions we can reduce the frustration of the suit selection and purchasing process. Eliminating the need for conducting confusing research and offering a selection of options based on the customer’s suiting needs. We would explore using AI or machine learning to take into account common trends, personal style, etiquette, and occasion while offering the user only currently available options to try on in store. 

We will know our approach is effective when an ongoing relationship between vendor and customer is established and there is repeat business. Research shows that men—following their initial experience—will stay with a brand or vendor if they are satisfied and comfortable with the suit fit.

• Occasion/Étiquette

• Images of product

• Fit Recommendation for body type

• Education

• Fabric/ Material explanation

• In-Store Experience

Optimized User Journey

Shopping key terms identified in interviews and feature prioritization were written on cards and presented to four  users they were asked to sort terms into the order they would prefer when selecting a suit and what they thought of the terms..

Cards present body type, suit fit, measurement, size, style, occasion, pattern,  color, recommendations and how many pieces.

The order of the steps in this journey is the result of evaluating a number of variations on card sorting and customer interviews.

Final Product

The final product would be an online / mobile optimized  solution that sets up a simple and direct path for suit education and recommendation for purchase. The customer will have a solution with everything they need in one place.

Suit recommendations by occasion.
Most buy for an occasion.

Fit recommendation  for body type
Not all fits are right for certain body types.  

Education offered but not forced.
Education will be offered throughout the experience for those who want to dig farther but it’s option. We are the suit experts here to help. 

Only available selection are offered.
Consistently in interview they wanted to be able to try on to make a final decision.

Online appointment booker to try on selection
or save for later.

Takeaways

• There is confusion if this is a shopping or recommendation tool.

• It needs to be stated clearly that this is only for Ready To Wear options.

• User feel don’t feel overwhelmed by experience length.

• The journey is clear.

• There are  still issues with understanding how to interact with the experiences slide or select option.  Need to further work on interactive study

• Maybe add an option to skip current step, open up more options.

• Measurements page should have an option to enter exact body measurements in, if you do know them. 

• Add location selector or use device geolocation to pick store for appointment

Benefits

Customer
With this tool we can address all major points brought to light in user interviews to help with the suit shopping experience.

• Suit recommendations by occasion.

• Fit recommendations for body type.

• Education & suit etiquette.

Only offer available selections that can be tried on and tailored.

OrganizationBrand loyalty and customer acquisition.  It was  mentioned multiple times during user interviews.  After the customer has established their ideal fit and size for their body type, they rarely strayed into new territory.  Loyalty has long-term profit potential for the organization.

Collecting user data of needs and wants that will help the organization better provide for clients.  Examples of client needs: sizes, fabrics, and brands.

Surprise marketing insight: Ready-to-Wear for was the most popular option overall.

If I had more time

Setting up a clear customer journey.
Work with a copywriter to fine tune the language . Throughout the experience there needs to be better indicators of what to do next or expected interaction.

Customer behaviors.
Further testing is needed for current and future interactions.  Things to focus on are the ability to zoom images and clarifying confusion on  CTAs’ meaning or not standing out enough to call attention.

First level information structure.
Further testing is needed to understand how much information the user is comfortable with if they don’t want to click more information.

Evaluating photography.
A  deep dive into image selection and photography styling. User realigned on the images more than reading content.