Virtual Fitting Room for Shopify: What It Is and What It Costs
A virtual fitting room is any tool that helps an online shopper do what they would do in a store's fitting room: see how something looks on them, and find out which size fits.
The term covers very different products. Some cost nothing to start. Others need 3D scans of every item and a project budget. This article explains the four main kinds, what each costs, and which one makes sense for a Shopify clothing store. We make AI Frame, a Virtual Try-On and Size Chart app for Shopify, so we say where it fits.
The four kinds of virtual fitting room
1. Photo-based AI try-on. The shopper uploads a photo and sees the item on themselves, made by an AI image model from your existing product photos. It answers how the item will look on them. It does not tell them their size. We explain how it works in Virtual Try-On for Clothes.
2. AR and 3D try-on. The phone camera places a 3D model of the product on the shopper in real time. It works well for glasses, makeup, watches and shoes. For clothing it is harder, because fabric moves, and every product needs its own 3D model.
3. Size recommendation (often called a fit finder). The shopper answers a few questions, usually height, weight and how they like things to fit, and gets a size based on your Size Chart. It answers which size to order. It shows nothing visual.
4. In-store smart mirrors. Screens in a physical shop that show items on the shopper. These are for retailers with stores, not for online-only brands.
A real fitting room answers both questions at once. Online, that usually means combining the first and third kinds on the same product page.
How much a virtual fitting room costs
Prices change often, so treat these as ranges, not quotes.
|
Kind |
What you need |
Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
|
Photo-based AI try-on (Shopify app) |
Your existing product photos |
Free plans to start. Paid plans from about $20 a month, priced by try-ons per month. Extra try-ons usually cost about 10 to 20 cents each. |
|
Size recommendation / fit finder (Shopify app) |
A Size Chart per product |
Free plans to start. Paid plans from a few dollars to a few tens of dollars a month. |
|
AR and 3D try-on |
A 3D model of every product |
Usually quoted per project, plus the cost of making the 3D models. Mostly used by large brands. |
|
In-store smart mirror |
Hardware in a physical shop |
Hardware and installation per store. Not relevant for online-only brands. |
To judge the price, compare it with the cost of a return. An apparel return costs a store somewhere between $20 and $45 all in, while one AI try-on costs a few cents. We worked through the numbers in The Maths of Confidence.
Which one makes sense for a Shopify clothing store
For most Shopify clothing stores, the answer is photo-based try-on plus size recommendation. Here is why.
- It works with what you have. Your product photos and your Size Chart are enough. No 3D models and no project.
- It covers both reasons shoppers hesitate. Try-on shows how it will look. The size recommendation tells them what to order. In a Google and Ipsos survey, 59% of shoppers said they were unhappy with an item because it looked different on them. Zalando measured about 10% fewer size-related returns on items with size advice. Those are two different problems, and each tool fixes one.
- You can start for free and see results on your own products before you pay.
AR and 3D make sense if you sell glasses, jewellery or watches, or if you are a large brand that already has 3D files of its products.
If you only want to start with one part, start with sizing. A Size Chart and a size estimate help every shopper who is unsure about size, and they need no photo. Add try-on when you're ready.
The numbers above are on our fit research page, with a link to how each one was measured.
How AI Frame works as a virtual fitting room
We built AI Frame to put both parts of the fitting room on one Shopify product page.
- Estimate my size. The shopper enters height and weight and gets a size from your Size Chart, next to the size picker, with one line on why. No photo and no tape measure. We explain the method in How Shoppers Find a Clothing Size from Height and Weight.
- Size Charts. Import the chart you already have or build one in the app, in centimetres and inches, and assign it to your products.
- Virtual Try-On. The shopper sees the item on their own photo and can add to cart from the result. Every render is labeled as AI, and the shopper agrees before their photo is used.
Each part works on its own, so you can turn on sizing first and add try-on later. You add everything with blocks in the Shopify theme editor, no developer needed.
AI Frame has a free plan with 10 try-ons a month. Paid plans start at $19.99 a month.
Questions store owners ask
What is a virtual fitting room? An online tool that helps shoppers see how clothes look on them, find their size, or both. It replaces the fitting room a shopper would use in a physical store.
How much does a virtual fitting room cost? For a Shopify store, photo-based try-on and size recommendation apps start free, with paid plans from about $20 a month. AR and 3D systems are usually quoted per project and need 3D models of each product.
Can I add a virtual fitting room to Shopify without a developer? Yes. Most Shopify apps add a button or block to your product page through the theme editor.
Does a virtual fitting room reduce returns? It can help with the two main reasons clothes come back: the item looked different on the shopper, or the size was wrong. Try-on helps with the first and size recommendation with the second, so they work best together.
Is a virtual fitting room the same as virtual try-on? Virtual try-on is one part of it, the visual part. A full virtual fitting room also helps the shopper pick the right size.
See it on your own products
Add AI Frame to your Shopify store for free and set up a Size Chart and try-on on one product. Or try it on our demo store first.
