Two-year-old DTC lingerie company Cuup thinks it has the answer to helping customers find their perfect bra. Rather than relying on a ton of data, technology and fit quizzes, the company is turning to one-on-one video chats and its team of “fit therapists” to solve some women’s biggest fit problems.
The illusive perfect-fit bra is something a lot of bra companies are trying to tackle, typically through fit quizzes. ThirdLove has its Fit Finder tool that asks customers to answer a series of questions about fit issues, like whether their straps dig in or bands rise up in the back. True&Co is another that uses a bra fit quiz to help recommend the right product for each customer.
Cuup wanted to take a more personal approach, and since rolling out the video service in April, it’s seeing success.
“Those quizzes can be helpful — they could help drive down returns — but they really miss that human element,” said Kearnon O’Molony, a co-founder at Cuup.
Each fit session is a 30-minute video conference with a Cuup employee deemed a “fit therapist” by the company. In those sessions, the therapist (really a sales person) talks customers through all the things they should be looking for in a perfect fit, from how the straps should feel to how the cups should fit.
Ad position: web_incontent_pos1
“[Fittings are] a very personal experience that generally has been clinical and doesn’t make you feel good,” said Abby Morgan, co-founder and CMO at Cuup. “What we realize is that, for customers, these experiences are more than just fittings. They’re kind of like a therapeutic conversation where it feels like a form of therapy or self-care. And that’s largely part of the reason we call our fit therapists therapists,” she said. Customers talk about everything from struggling to find the right bra to learning to love their breasts.
Customers are encouraged to measure themselves using a tape measure during the video conference, so the fit therapist can make sure the customer is taking proper measurements.
Ninety-five percent of people who have used the video conference fitting tool have made a purchase, Morgan said. O’Molony said he also notices that shoppers who participate in the video conference tend to spend 50% more in a single online order. The brand is on track to hit 2,000 completed video fittings by the end of the year.
Ad position: web_incontent_pos2
Cuup also found that about 75% of customers who have participated are wearing the wrong bra size. It used that insight to promote the video conferences when they launched earlier this year, creating a series of videos talking to women about finding the right size bra. Those were posted to Cuup’s own social accounts and through email to existing customers. Today, the company does some paid marketing around fit, and it also hosts regular fittings for media outlets from Vogue to Vanity Fair.
Since launching the tool in April, the company has hired three fit therapists who have fit 1,200 people via conference. Currently, they host video sessions (and in-person sessions) between 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. every day of the week. Video conferences are also leading to more repeat customers, O’Molony said. Currently, 30% of the company’s revenue is coming from return customers, but he declined to share specifics.
In March, the company opened a showroom in its Soho office space where it offers in-person fittings.
“Right now, you can’t book a slot in the next two weeks on our site. We’re scrambling to add capacity because the demand is there,” said O’Molony.
In 2020, Morgan said Cuup hopes to make 10% of sales in-person, at its showroom, and it has plans to hire more fit therapists to keep up with video conference demands.
