Nearly 1 in 4 (24.4%) online apparel orders are returned, and the most common reason, cited by 53% of clothing retailers, is fit, according to a 2023 Coresight Research report. That’s why clothing retailers are so bullish on online virtual try-on tools, with 27% reporting they already had them and another 58% planning to add them in the future, per Coresight.

Now Tote, a retail technology startup, has a solution that ensures online shoppers get the right size by enticing them to come to a store to try it on properly.

Daniel Nickel, founder and CEO of Tote, said the concept arose from his own frustration. Nickel, who lives in Brooklyn, once saw a jacket on J.Crew’s website, and walked into a J.Crew in Tribeca, only to be told that it wasn’t in stock but was in another location on the Upper East Side.

When he got home, he ordered four jackets from J.Crew online, expecting to return three but ultimately returning all four, an inconvenience for him and—particularly in the free returns and shipping era when this occurred—a major expense without a sale for the retailer.

“This was a pretty crappy experience, not just for me, the shopper who didn’t get what I wanted and then was saddled with these returns, but for the brand too, who missed out on a sale, who paid for shipping twice, and then paid the cost of reprocessing these items that are out of stock for six to eight weeks,” Nickel told Retail Brew.

An alternative scenario occurred to Nickel.

If “I could have told them, like, ‘Hey, J.Crew, I’m Dan. I’m coming into your Tribeca store Wednesday after work at 5:30. I’d like to try on these three pairs of jeans and these three jackets. Can you have them pulled aside? Can you have them waiting for me in a fitting room?’ That would have solved everything,” Nickel said.

Keep reading here.—AAN

As consumers look to save $$, they’re cutting back on spending and seeking value in a number of consumer categories, impacting many CPGs’ third-quarter results.

Hershey reported this week a 1.4% net sales drop in its third quarter on the back of high cocoa prices that’ve led to higher prices passed on to consumers, as well as a “challenging consumer environment,” CEO and President Michele Buck noted. The company reduced its full-year growth outlook to be flat year over year.

“Consumers across the income spectrum are making budgetary trade-offs and shopping differently this year,” Buck noted, as consumers prioritizing “satiety” has led to fewer trips to convenience and drug stores, favoring club, dollar, and online retailers, where its product categories are “less developed.” In confection, especially chocolate, it’s losing share to smaller brands and private labels, she said.

Keep reading here.—EC

If you live in New York City and saw a Fishwife store appear on Google Maps a few weeks ago, it wasn’t a fever dream. For two weekends in late September and early October, the tinned-fish company set up a temporary brick-and-mortar shop in Manhattan’s NoLita neighborhood.

After soliciting the help of partner and email and SMS marketing platform Klaviyo, which it’s been working with since 2020, the Fishwife team created an experience modeled off of Portuguese conservas shops that incorporated Fishwife’s “super colorful” and “little bit irreverent” branding, Becca Millstein, CEO and co-founder of Fishwife, told us.

For the two weekends it was open, the location served up everything from caviar on ice cream to customized necklaces from Susan Alexandra—and it delivered big results for the brand, Millstein said: The pop-up drew more than 5,000 total attendees and brought in $91,000 in revenue, doubling expectations.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—KH