The Copenhagen-based start-up Fitbay.com has raised USD 400,000 from Jesper Buch (Founder of Just-Eat and investor in Miinto, etc.) and Creandum (investor in Spotify, iZettle, Vivino, etc.). The investment will be used to make it easy to discover and buy clothes in the right size online.
Fitbay.com makes it easy to buy clothes in the right size by creating a clothes discovery experience personalized to the user’s body shape. Fitbay is a community for social shopping with your body doubles where users only see products recommended by other users who share the same height, weight, and body type. This removes the concern of buying clothes in the wrong size so users can concentrate on important aspects like price, brand, and design instead.
Approximately 40% of all clothes sold on the Internet are returned because the product is either the wrong size or does not fit the customer’s body shape. This is a major inconvenience for online clothes shoppers and leads many people to prefer shopping in physical stores. The online penetration of clothes is only 15%, which is low relative to other product categories. Returns are a major cost for online retailers who are looking for a solution to the industry known sizing problem.
”Today it is not convenient to buy clothes online. A large part of purchases result in a trip to the post office in order to send the product back to the store. Customers do not want to risk buying clothes in the wrong size and as a result they stop buying clothes online altogether. We want to bring convenience back to online clothes shopping by helping users find clothes that fit both in size and style.” says Christian Wylonis, Founder & CEO of Fitbay.com.
Fitbay recommends clothes in the right size without using measuring tape or analysis software. Fitbay connects people of similar body shapes into virtual networks based on their height, weight, and body types. This creates the basis for a social shopping experience where inspiration and discovery happens with your body doubles.
”The unique thing about Fitbay is that the social shopping experience becomes more relevant when it is between people who have the same body. The biggest issue with social shopping today is that clothes recommended by someone who is 180 cm and 80 kg is not very relevant to someone who is 160 cm and 50 kg.” says Jesper Buch.
”We are proud to support the team behind Fitbay.com in their vision to solve the biggest pain in online clothes shopping today.” says Martin Hauge, General Partner at Creandum. Creandum is the leading Nordic venture capital fund best known for their early investment in Spotify.
Fitbay was founded by Christian Wylonis who was previously Associate at Creandum and has a background from Harvard and McKinsey & Company. The co-Founders are Andreas Jarbol, Philip Wylonis, Michael Wolthers Nielsen, and Troels Reese Christensen. Fitbay is currently in closed beta (invite only).
