Interview With Shingo Tsukamoto, President Of Sizing Technology Specialist Makip

Makip is a Japan-based fashion technology company that supports over 300 brands using their online sizing technology, Unisize. Not just leading Japanese brands, but internationally renowned brands such as Fred Perry, Lacoste and North Face.

TechRound recently sat down with Makip’s president Shingo Tsukamoto to discuss things in more detail and understand how AR, VR and technology is helping with all things sizing and is reducing clothing waste.

Who Are Makip And What Do You Do?

Makip has introduced Unisize, its cutting-edge service, to the UK and US eCommerce markets, aiming to reduce retailer return rates by at least 20%. We achieve this by helping online shoppers choose the right-sized clothing items the first time, every time they shop online.

Unisize helps online shoppers with their patented ‘trying-on’ scheme or ‘comparing’ technique and allows customers to see how the items fit their unique body shape. By seeing how clothing items will fit their body or how those clothing items are similar in size to what they have in their closet, they purchase the most suitable and accurately sized clothing items for the purchaser, the first time, every time.

In order to get their size offered with the ‘trying-on’ scheme, online shoppers are either asked a few basic questions such as height, weight and age or to provide two photographs of themselves, one front on, the other side on.

This will allow Unisize to map the individual’s body size to the clothing item and then display how the clothes will fit the unique size of the shopper. On the other hand, the ‘comparing’ technique will map the item’s size to the clothing that consumers have in their closet and will be displayed to show the difference between these two garments.

We All Try On Clothes, So What Problem Do You Solve?

With e-commerce users in the UK expected to surpass 62 million in 2025, UK consumers are spending over £54bn annually on fashion and the cost of returns is estimated to cost UK retailers £4.4bn by 2026. This not only costs the retailer time and money in processing returns but also the environment!

There is a clear opportunity for eCommerce fashion and apparel retailers to ensure they provide great online shopping experiences for their customers, such as providing ‘real fitting’ experiences and with 93% of customers cited incorrect sizing, or fit, as the top reason for returning items according to British Fashion Council, there is a real opportunity to support retailers and consumers alike.

Makip invests time and resources to get highly accurate measurements of the clothing items sold by each brand/ retailer. Using both accumulated user body data and any publicly available sizing data, Makip is able to use this data-based insight to provide highly accurate clothing fit recommendations.

With no consistent sizing across different brands/ retailers, this unique approach ensures consumers choose the correct sized clothing item the first time, every time.

It is different from market rivals in key ways because other online sizing technology uses questions to determine body size in a similar process to how Unisize works – but it doesn’t show consumers how the clothing item fits their unique body shape/size.

Makip’s unique approach saw them measure a wide variety of UK body sizes and shapes to help customise their body size prediction algorithm.

Other online sizing technology uses mass data aggregation of previous purchases to determine average body size and matches this with the clothing item size which is purchased most often.

This approach isn’t personalised to the consumer and doesn’t show them how the clothing item(s) fit their unique body shape/size.

How Has The Acceleration Of VR And AR Helped Make Makip What It Is Today?

AI is becoming increasingly prevalent in every aspect of our lives and the fashion market is no exception. In fact, AI in fashion is creating a huge wave, with the industry valued at USD 2.9 billion in 2025 and AI technology is revolutionising the way customers interact with online clothing and allowing them to virtually ‘try on’ clothing items.

AI makes online sizing technology more accurate, efficient and personalised by using machine learning algorithms, computer vision and data analysis. The result of using AI enables retailers to provide their customers with a more seamless and convenient online shopping experience.

As online shoppers look for increasing interactivity, innovations such as using AI to show what you will look like wearing particular items of clothing are becoming popular, such as our latest innovation, FaceChange, which allows online shoppers to virtually try on items of clothing they want to purchase by using AI to replace the faces of the online models.

Users securely upload an image of their face and FaceChange then replaces the online model’s face with their own, allowing them to see how they would look wearing the item.

With FaceChange, online shoppers can ‘virtually wear’ the clothing items of their choice, gaining instant visual feedback. Now shoppers are not only confident that they are purchasing the right size but are also confident that they will look great. Our Japanese clients using FaceChange have increased conversion by four times.

Does Makip Spell The End Of The High Street And The End Of Actually Trying On Clothes?

Makip’s technology enhances, rather than replaces, the high-street shopping experience. While it allows consumers to visualise clothing fit and style from home, it lacks the tactile, social, and experiential elements of in-store shopping. Many shoppers still prefer the reassurance of physically trying on garments, feeling fabrics and receiving in-person advice.

High street retailers can integrate virtual try-on tools to enhance convenience while driving foot traffic, offering a hybrid approach. By bridging online and offline shopping, this technology supports customer decision-making, reduces returns, and complements physical stores rather than rendering them obsolete.

Retail remains an experience, not just a transaction.

What Are The Biggest Challenges When It Comes To Running An AI Platform Like Yours?

We believe that building trust with users is crucial. While Unisize’s size recommendation engine achieves exceptionally high accuracy by combining human expertise with AI, the key factor in reducing return rates is whether users trust the recommendations.

Our technology accurately captures users’ body measurements and seamlessly overlays clothing to deliver highly reliable and personalised recommendations. However, our goal is to establish this trust in fewer interactions, ensuring a seamless and reliable shopping experience.

How Has Makip Helped Retailers And Clothes Sellers?

Makip’s accurate sizing technology ensures that customers purchase clothing that fits them perfectly on the first try, eliminating the need for multiple shipping and return cycles and consequently reducing the impact of carbon emissions associated with return transportation and processing.

A valuable contribution when you consider that approximately 300,000 tonnes of clothes are burned or buried in landfills each year in the UK alone!

This is because, traditionally, sizes were accurate to specific measurements, taking height and weight into consideration. But as the population got bigger, as well as an influx of vanity sizes and many different sizing variations, as well as materials and shopping habits; consumers have been left with almost too much choice with little, or no consistency between brands, styles or genres.

Clothing sizing across different brands, retailers and regions is not consistent. If you look back at when the ready-to-wear business boomed, brands created standardised sizing to streamline production and reduce costs.

Very small and athletic body types were used to create the sizes, relying on decades-old data to determine the size and fit. Brands then decide on their own target market and then size their products according to what will make their target customers happy.

Consumers often order several different sizes of the same clothing item because they don’t have confidence in the retailer’s sizing guide.

Makip helps retailers, sellers and consumers alike to reduce return rates, whilst increasing the CVR by 2.5 times by using Unisize.

This results in retailers spending millions of pounds on returns and refunds

What Has Been Your Greatest Success?

Since its founding in 2015, Makip has been driven by the mission to make the impossible possible through technology. We have developed innovative services such as Unisize and FaceChange, which have already been adopted by many customers to enhance their online shopping experience.

Our flagship product, Unisize, has been implemented on over 300 websites in Japan and holds the No.1 market share for size recommendation systems in the country. This success highlights our commitment to providing cutting-edge personalisation solutions that improve both consumer satisfaction and retailer efficiency.

Beyond Japan, we are actively expanding into international markets such as the UK, where our solutions are recognised for helping e-commerce businesses reduce return rates and enhance the shopping journey.

By continuously evolving in the fashion tech space, Makip is not just improving convenience but also shaping the future of the global e-commerce industry.

What Do The Next Few Years Have In Store For Makip?

In the coming years, Makip will continue to expand our services with personalisation as a key focus.

Our products, such as Unisize and FaceChange, have already been adopted by many customers to enhance the shopping experience through personalised services. With the growing trend of personalised content on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, where users expect tailored experiences, this shift will continue to accelerate.

As internet usage approaches nearly 90%, the expectation of passively receiving personalised experiences will become the norm across all age groups, not just among Gen Z and digital natives.

In this evolving landscape, we believe personalisation will become an essential element for apparel e-commerce. Makip is committed to providing the best possible e-commerce experience for all users, leveraging our unique perspective and vast, high-precision data to further enhance the personalisation of e-commerce websites.