Toronto-based startup Avease says its on-page virtual fitting and measurement-based sizing reduce shopping cart abandonments and apparel returns.
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Toronto startup Avease is aiming to change how shoppers confirm clothing size online by placing a virtual fitting room directly on a retailer’s product page, using an avatar created once by the customer.
According to Avease, shoppers click a “Try On with Avease” button where a size guide normally appears, which immediately shows the shopper wearing the item and recommends a size based on the garment’s actual measurements rather than a generic chart.
Company materials say the approach is designed to address two common sources of lost revenue: customers leaving online carts when they are uncertain about sizing, and higher return rates when fit doesn’t match expectations.
Avease points to Coresight research that 40% of shoppers abandon carts due to size uncertainty, arguing that retailers pay for traffic that is later dropped at the point of purchase. It also cites apparel return rates, stating that returns are 24% on apparel purchases and that 70% of those returns are driven by fit issues.
Avease also links the cost of returns to broader financial impact, noting that U.S. returns topped $890 billion in 2024 and that a brand can lose about 20% of gross profit to bad fit alone, based on its materials.
“Returns don’t have to be an inevitable cost of doing business,” says Michael Klein, Avease’s Director of Revenue & E-commerce. Klein said the company provides “clarity right at the point of decision,” with the aim of reducing both abandoned carts and costly returns.
Klein, who has more than 15 years in fashion, said his experience includes moving inventory through Canadian showrooms and retail floors as well as running a Shopify e-commerce store. He described fit-related returns as a major operational challenge for brands, both financially and in terms of time and resources.
Avease says its implementation is intended to be straightforward for retailers: the platform connects to a store, adds the on-page button, and generates size charts from the brand’s own specification sheets. The company claims most retailers can be live in days rather than weeks and that customers use the tool free.
The company’s materials also position the service as particularly relevant ahead of peak seasonal shopping, describing a low lift for brands to adopt before Black Friday and using fit confidence as a lever for conversion during the busiest retail period.
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