As much as we love online shopping, it can definitely be hit or miss. Of course, that's not news to you or us, but it can still be pretty frustrating nonetheless. We've laid out the drawbacks of the e-commerce experience, but, alas, retailers continue to draw us in with flash sales and free shipping, so naturally, we keep coming back for more. One of the retailers we hit up on the regular is making the cons of shopping online a little more bearable thanks to a very cool, very useful tool. Zara's sizing feature is saving our lives (well, maybe just our wallets) one purchase at a time.
If you look hard enough, you'll find a little blue button on all of the product pages on Zara.com. Click on "What's my size?" next to it, and there, you'll find all of your sizing concerns taken care of. The retailer has partnered with Fit Analytics, a service that builds itself as the "size recommendation engine," and from the looks of it, it totally is. All you have to do is put in your height, weight, and how you want the item to fit (tighter, perfect, or looser), and voilà — your chances of your order fitting exactly how you'd like it to are that much higher. And thankfully, our chances of returning or exchanging the item — which, no matter what a store's policy is, can be a hassle — are that much lower.
The tool works for just about everything, by the way, excluding some outerwear, shoes, and accessories. We first discovered this trick last year, but we figured it was best to bring it back to your attention again as we start shopping for spring and summer. The last thing anyone wants — especially ahead of swimsuit season — is a bunch of packages arriving at their door without a single pick that fits. Hopefully more retailers jump on this fit-assisting feature; no matter where you're shopping, this hack is pretty genius.