Victoria’s Secret & Co. Pilots 3D Body Scanning and AI Fit Tools to Reduce Returns

30 September 2026

Fashion retailers are turning to 3D body scanning and AI fit tools to combat high return rates and boost shopper confidence in sizing. At a time when retail returns have reached epidemic levels, creating a personal avatar or 3D model of the body has emerged as a potential solution for both physical and online retailers.

Major Fashion Brands Invest in AI Fit Tools to Slash Returns

Rising return rates threaten to bankrupt retailers. At face value, returning a single item doesn't sound too harmful to a company's bottom line, but the U.S. National Retail Federation estimated that 16.5% of annual retail sales were returned in 2023, totaling $761 billion. For online sales, the return rate hit 24.4%, according to PYMNTS. Packing, returning and restocking adds costs every step of the way. Research in the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management estimates that each return costs a company 20% to 40% of the item's price tag.

Returns cause a host of problems — from physical waste to deferred revenue, not to mention impact on the conversion and retention rates. For all these reasons, strategies to prevent returns are simultaneously crucial and challenging. Brands want ways to ensure a better fit, enhance the shopping experience, and drive sales. Indeed, some, such as Victoria’s Secret, are launching tools with the aim of making returns nearly obsolete.

Fashion brands are focusing on AI fitting tools, which essentially perform a virtual fitting room experience. H&M began testing one with Nexr Technologies in 2021, and plans for other retailers have followed. Other major brands like Victoria's Secret teamed up to offer shoppers 3D body scanning and recommender tools.

Fashion giants trial the latest virtual fit tech

Levi’s, Victoria’s Secret, and H&M are among major brands piloting high-tech body measuring and virtual fitting tools to slash sizing errors, boost satisfaction, and reduce returns.

Startups are offering apparel brands tools to objectively measure their customers' sizes – combining 3D body scans, AI and data science to assess shopper dimensions and suit them with the best products, sizes, and styles. Rather than relying on one-off size charts, brands can use the tech to learn more about shopper measurements and figure out which styles and items sell best in different sizes.

Victoria’s Secret & Co. recently announced a partnership with NetVirta on a new fit technology, available within the retailer’s app. The smartphone-based 3D body scanning tool helps consumers order the right size apparel. NetVirta’s solution, called Verifyt, scans a shopper's full body and provides personalized recommendations.

For their part, H&M says they are testing a “digital fitting room” with Nexr Technologies in select stores in Germany. After completing a 20-second body scan, shoppers get to dress their personal avatars virtually. According to the Swedish retailer, the pilot aims to test whether this technology can help shoppers choose styles, pick the right dress sizes, and ultimately make a purchase decision.

Zalando’s expansion of its virtual fitting room began with Levi’s in April 2023. According to the commerce platform, more than 1.5 million customers across 14 European markets have given it a try. What's more, Zalando said its virtual fitting room has led to a 40% drop in returns for the Levi’s merchandise.

Virtual Try-On Gives Retailers New Way to Build Confidence, Prevent Returns

The latest experimental solutions use smartphone cameras to study shopper measurements and help them pick the right items, sizes and prints.

Future fashion shoppers may grow accustomed to the constant presence of personalized shopping recommendations. An increasing number of shopping apps study the endless user churn from the everyday motion of an item from initial click through check out, plus later struggles in returns, to generate so-called “personalized” recommendations and set the tone for future shopping trips.

Startups like NetVirta and Nexr are helping retailers use AI, 3D cameras and data science to study and learn from shopper moving images to provide virtual recommendations in storefronts, or during a phone-based shop.

AI 3D body-scanning and virtual recommendation tools like these may be experimental, but they provide a glimpse of a future in which size uncertainty is constantly monitored, analyzed and, to some extent solved.

Retailers are turning 3D cameras into an everyday feature in mobile shopping and an in-store novelty where shoppers can compare styles and measurements by creating a quick-to-market avatar in front of a retail-store camera. In physical stores, the 3D spectra are taller than you, inside a 12-foot white-column rectangular box.

Industry-wide push

Fashion retailers are increasingly relying on emerging smart technologies to redefine the shopping experience, and one area getting a lot of attention is virtual try-ons. Beyond Levi’s and Victoria’s Secret, Google expanded its AI virtual try-on feature to Australia, Canada, and Japan in October and added a shoe fitting feature. Meanwhile, Zara rolled out a virtual try-on tool in December, alongside return fees for online orders.

While the rise of virtual fitting rooms has certainly picked up in the last year, the tech has been slowly taking shape for some time. ASOS reported a 160-basis-point reduction in its returns rate in 2023, partly by experimenting with virtual try-ons in partnership with AIUTA.

Still, the prevalence of virtual try-on experiences across the retail industry remains relatively unknown, and retailers have still unknowns. Companies are on the fence, running smart-machine shopping ideas in-store, and judging the response of online shoppers to the tools — but these ideas are still new, and the market's reaction remains unknown.