1) sizing is screwy
2) it's impossibly kludgy to browse clothing, textures, etc.
3) a painful return process
SO, I'm waiting for a department store with:
1) ONE pair of each item
2) ZERO inventory,
3) With all that additional space, a MASSIVE selection
3) Everything gets shipped straight to your home.
When you walk into the store they measure you, scan your credit card, and hand you a barcode scanner. Scan what you want and the perfectly sized clothing shows up on your doorstep in a day or two.
Nice side effects:
1) No more fear because it's easy to take back to the store if you don't like it.
2) For all the people that don't live in NYC or LA there would finally be a store with a decent selection...
3) Few clothing stores actually track purchases-- finally, you could now have a killer recommendation system that people would actually trust.
Solves so many problems (and probably creates a few). It kind of reminds me of Service Merchandise back in the day where they only had one item out front and everything else in the warehouse-- except now the warehouse is in "the cloud" so to speak.
...I already do this at Barnes & Noble-- browse for what I want and I've already Amazon Prime'd the book before I walk out the door...
Beyond the obvious technical challenges to me the biggest question is whether the economics of it works when you individually ship everything from a central location.