These online fashion retailers are bringing trial rooms home

Rea Shah, a 24-year-old consultant in Mumbai, realized one evening that she didn’t have a formal dress suitable for a client dinner just three hours away.

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The try-and-buy model raises the benchmark of convenience in India's rapidly growing quick commerce market.

(ISTOCKPHOTO)

Instead of stepping out to buy one, she ordered five options online. A delivery rider arrived before seven, waited while she tried them on, before leaving with the rejects. The crisis was resolved in roughly an hour.

“I didn’t have it in me to step out in peak traffic, so this just made more sense,” Shah said. She ended up keeping two pieces instead of one.

Fashion quick-commerce sites are pulling the familiar offline trial-room experience into homes. The model, referred to as try-and-buy or ‘‘living-room trial”, allows people to order and assess items instantly, and return unwanted pieces.