Virtual try-on has moved onto the biggest shopping surfaces. Google lets shoppers see clothes on a photo of themselves, in the US since July 2025 and in Malaysia since June 2026, Amazon has offered try-on for shoes since 2022, and Zalando is taking its Virtual Fitting Room from pilots to all of its customers this year. The numbers behind it are scattered across press releases, surveys and market reports, and many of the figures repeated online name no source at all.
This page collects the figures we could trace to the organisation that published them. Each one links its source and the date we read it, 18 October 2026. It is a reading of other people's research: no Photta data is used, and where sources disagree, the page shows the disagreement instead of picking one number.
Key figures
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 42% | US online clothes shoppers who don't feel represented by the models in product images (1,614 adults, April 2023) | Google and Ipsos · checked 2026-10-18 |
| 59% | The same shoppers who were dissatisfied with an item because it looked different on them than they expected | Google and Ipsos · checked 2026-10-18 |
| 15.8% | Share of US retail sales that retailers expected to be returned in 2025, or $849.9 billion | NRF and Happy Returns · checked 2026-10-18 |
| 19.3% | Share of US online sales that retailers expected to be returned in 2025 | NRF and Happy Returns · checked 2026-10-18 |
| 53% | US apparel brands and retailers naming size and fit as the top reason for online returns (March 2023) | Coresight Research · checked 2026-10-18 |
| 85% | The same companies that used virtual try-on tools or planned to | Coresight Research · checked 2026-10-18 |
| Up to 40% | Fall in return rates in Zalando's recent Virtual Fitting Room pilots | Zalando · checked 2026-10-18 |
| 8% | Size-related returns that Zalando's size and fit tools prevented in 2025 | Zalando · checked 2026-10-18 |
| $4.63 billion to $8.5 billion | Three estimates of the virtual fitting room market, for 2023 and 2025 | IMARC Group, Straits Research, SNS Insider · checked 2026-10-18 |
The market: three estimates that disagree
Market research firms sell their full reports, so the part anyone can check is the headline on each firm's own summary page. These are three of them.
| Publisher | Market size | Forecast | Growth a year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IMARC Group | $8.5 billion in 2025 | $52.6 billion by 2034 | 21.8% from 2026 to 2034 | IMARC Group · checked 2026-10-18 |
| Straits Research | $7.5 billion in 2025 | $35.82 billion by 2034 | 18.6% from 2026 to 2034 | Straits Research · checked 2026-10-18 |
| SNS Insider | $4.63 billion in 2023 | $28.29 billion by 2032 | 22.3% from 2024 to 2032 | SNS Insider · checked 2026-10-18 |
The two estimates for 2025 are a billion dollars apart, and the two forecasts for 2034 almost $17 billion apart. The firms do not count the same thing: Straits Research, for example, includes hardware, software and services, and sales to physical stores as well as online ones, and its page gives $35.3 billion for 2034 in one place and $35.82 billion in another (Straits Research · checked 2026-10-18). If you quote one of these figures, name the publisher and the year, and call a forecast a forecast.
What shoppers say
In April 2023, Google and Ipsos surveyed 1,614 US adults who had bought clothing online. 42% said they don't feel represented by images of models, and 59% said they had been dissatisfied with an item bought online because it looked different on them than they expected. Google published the figures on 14 June 2023, the day it launched try-on for women's tops on real models from size XXS to 4XL (Google · checked 2026-10-18).
Two cautions apply. The survey was commissioned by a company launching a try-on feature, and it covers US shoppers only. It also measures what shoppers say, not what they do.
Returns: the cost try-on is meant to reduce
In their 2025 Retail Returns Landscape report, published on 15 October 2025, the National Retail Federation and Happy Returns, a UPS company, found that retailers expected 15.8% of their annual sales to be returned, or $849.9 billion, after 16.9% and $890 billion in 2024. For online sales the estimate was 19.3% (NRF · checked 2026-10-18).
The same report found that shoppers aged 18 to 30 had returned online purchases 7.7 times in the previous twelve months on average, more than any other generation, and that close to two-thirds of consumers admit at least one returns habit that is costly for retailers, such as bracketing: buying several sizes and returning the ones that don't fit. The surveys behind it covered 2,006 consumers and 358 ecommerce professionals at US merchants with more than $500 million in revenue (NRF · checked 2026-10-18). The 2026 edition had not been published when we checked.
Clothing comes back more often than the average purchase. Coresight Research estimated an average online apparel return rate of 24.4% for the twelve months to 6 March 2023, from a survey of 100 decision-makers at US apparel brands and retailers. Size and fit was the top reason for returns, cited by 53% of them, ahead of colour at 16% and damage at 10% (Coresight Research · checked 2026-10-18).
European figures run higher still. Zalando writes that return rates in European online fashion can reach around 50%, that size and fit account for up to half of those returns, and that return rates for jeans can reach 65% (Zalando · checked 2026-10-18).
What try-on does to returns and sales
The evidence that try-on changes what shoppers do is thinner than the market forecasts suggest, and most of it comes from the companies that run the tools. Intent among sellers is high: in Coresight's March 2023 survey, 85% of US apparel brands and retailers already used virtual try-on tools or planned to (Coresight Research · checked 2026-10-18).
Zalando's Virtual Fitting Room builds a 3D avatar from a customer's body measurements and shows how different sizes of the same item could look on it. In recent pilots it reduced return rates by up to 40%, Zalando writes, and the goal for 2026 is to offer it to all customers. Across all its size and fit tools, which include size flags and recommendations on around 70% of its assortment, Zalando says it prevented 8% of size-related returns in 2025, and more than 1.5 million customers have tried its body measurement tool (Zalando · checked 2026-10-18).
The independent study we found that uses real sales data is about augmented reality for cosmetics. In the Journal of Marketing in January 2022, Yong-Chin Tan, Sandeep R. Chandukala and Srinivas K. Reddy studied the mobile app of an international cosmetics retailer (Journal of Marketing · checked 2026-10-18). They found that AR had a positive effect on sales that appears to be small overall, and a stronger one for less popular brands and products, for more expensive products and for customers new to the online channel or the category (American Marketing Association · checked 2026-10-18).
Read together, the two suggest that try-on helps most where the shopper is least sure what will arrive: the fit of jeans, which Zalando calls especially relevant for its Virtual Fitting Room, or an expensive product from a less familiar brand in the cosmetics study.
Four kinds of virtual try-on
The figures above describe different technologies, and a result from one kind does not carry over to another.
| Kind | What the shopper sees | Examples on this page |
|---|---|---|
| Camera AR | The product drawn over a live camera view of the feet, face or hands | Amazon's Virtual Try-On for Shoes, the cosmetics app in the Journal of Marketing study |
| Generated photo | An AI image of the item on a model, or on the shopper's own photo | Google's try on, Walmart's Be Your Own Model |
| 3D avatar | A body built from measurements, with the item shown on it in each size | Zalando's Virtual Fitting Room |
| Size advice | A recommended size worked out from fit data, with no image of the shopper | Zalando's size flags and recommendations |
For what the first two mean for a store, see AI vs AR virtual try-on.
Who offers virtual try-on: a timeline
| Date | Company | What launched | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 June 2022 | Amazon | Virtual Try-On for Shoes: AR in the iOS app in the US and Canada, for thousands of sneaker styles | Amazon · checked 2026-10-18 |
| 15 September 2022 | Walmart | Be Your Own Model: clothes on the shopper's own photo, on more than 270,000 items | Walmart · checked 2026-10-18 |
| 14 June 2023 | Try-on for women's tops on real models from XXS to 4XL, in the US | Google · checked 2026-10-18 | |
| 20 May 2025 | Try on with your own full-length photo, as a Search Labs experiment in the US, across a Shopping Graph of more than 50 billion listings | Google · checked 2026-10-18 | |
| 24 July 2025 | Try on launched in the US across Search, Google Shopping and Google Images | Google · checked 2026-10-18 | |
| 2 June 2026 | Try On launched in Malaysia, with shoes as well as clothes | Google · checked 2026-10-18 | |
| 22 June 2026 | Zalando | Virtual Fitting Room to move from pilots to all customers during 2026 | Zalando · checked 2026-10-18 |
For the longer story, see the history of virtual try-on. For how Google's tool works and how a store can offer something similar, see how Google's virtual try-on works.
If you sell on marketplaces
The same platforms now set rules for AI-made product images. Amazon asks sellers to tag images that show photorealistic AI-generated people, Google asks that the metadata marking an image as AI-generated is kept, and Zalando requires identifying data in AI-generated images by December 2026. The rules for nine platforms, each with its official page, are in product image sizes and rules for nine marketplaces.
What these numbers do not tell you
- Most of them are American. The NRF, Coresight and Google and Ipsos figures cover US shoppers or US companies; Zalando's are European.
- Estimates are not audits. NRF's return rates are what retailers expected, and Coresight's are what decision-makers reported.
- Pilot results come from the company that ran the pilot. The Zalando page we read does not give the size of the pilots or what they were compared with.
- Market sizes are estimates sold as reports. The methods sit behind each firm's paywall.
How we checked
We read every figure on the page of the organisation that published it, on 18 October 2026, and linked that page beside the figure. We left out numbers we could not trace to a primary source, including try-on conversion and return figures that circulate online attributed to unnamed studies. We could not find a Grand View Research page for this market, and a ResearchAndMarkets release could not be opened, so neither is in the market table. When NRF and Happy Returns publish their 2026 returns report, this page will be updated.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the virtual try-on market in 2026?
There is no agreed figure. On their own pages, IMARC Group puts the virtual fitting room market at $8.5 billion in 2025, Straits Research at $7.5 billion in 2025 and SNS Insider at $4.63 billion in 2023. Their forecasts range from $28.29 billion by 2032 to $52.6 billion by 2034.
Does virtual try-on reduce returns?
Zalando reports that its Virtual Fitting Room reduced return rates by up to 40% in recent pilots, and that its size and fit tools prevented 8% of size-related returns in 2025. Independent evidence is thinner: a 2022 Journal of Marketing study of AR for cosmetics found a positive but small effect on sales overall.
Why do people return clothes bought online?
Size and fit, most often. In a March 2023 Coresight Research survey, 53% of US apparel brands and retailers named size and fit as the top reason for online returns, ahead of colour and damage. Zalando writes that size and fit account for up to half of returns in European online fashion.
What share of online purchases is returned?
In the US, retailers expected 19.3% of online sales and 15.8% of all retail sales to be returned in 2025, according to NRF and Happy Returns. Coresight Research estimated 24.4% for online apparel in the year to March 2023.
Which companies offer virtual try-on?
Google has offered try on with your own photo in the US since July 2025 and in Malaysia since June 2026. Amazon has offered AR try-on for shoes since June 2022, Walmart launched Be Your Own Model in September 2022, and Zalando is rolling out its Virtual Fitting Room to all customers in 2026.