RESOURCES: It’s You, Virtually

Now that folks are finally getting used to shopping online, some direct marketers are adding another dimension. Three dimensions, to be exact.

It’s called My Virtual Model (for women only) and it’s, well…you. The software, available on certain Web sites, allows a shopper to build a 3-D model that suits her physical dimensions, then try on clothes, get the model to turn 360 degrees, pose and slip on different combinations to see what looks most flattering. The model even becomes the shopper’s own “best friend,” providing advice based on the shopper’s questionnaire, about which clothes would look best with her attributes.

Not surprisingly, customers rave about this. “We get a lot of e-mail saying `It’s eerie how much this model resembles me.’ Boyfriends and husbands also e-mail to express gratitude,” comments Ann Schryver, spokeswoman for Lands’ End, Dodgeville, WI, which was the first online retailer to adopt the technology.

Some 400,000 virtual models have been created since the feature was added to the Web site (www.landsend.com) last year, and the company has just expanded the number of outfits available to “try on.” Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that for the first time, as many women’s products are being sold as men’s.

The software’s inventor – Louise Guay, CEO of Montreal-based Public Technologies Multimedia – says she wants the technology to be the standard for apparel Web sites, and a way for women to feel good about themselves.

“Once you learn what’s beautiful about you, then it tells you what looks best on you,” Guay explains in an interview from Paris, where she’s penned an agreement with French department store Les Galeries Lafayette. “You become more like a superstar. It’s exactly like a meeting witha personal shopper.”

Web sites for Macy’s and J.C. Penney – macys.com and jcpenney.com – also feature My Virtual Model. A pact to develop a CD-ROM with the Walt Disney Co. is in the offing.

Cosmopolitan magazine wrote the content for the three-dimensional program, which can be sampled at www.fashionmakeover.com.