Helping Pet Parents Find the Right Fit
A product concept exploring how Chewy could reduce sizing confusion in pet apparel through visual size guidance, breed-based recommendations, and personalized fit tools.
Description
A visual and personalized sizing experience to help pet owners answer the question: Will this actually fit my dog?
Role
Product Designer
Time frame
2 weeks
Tools
• Figma • Adobe Illustrator • Figma make • Chat GTP
• Claude •OpenArt ai
Why This Project?
Chewy has built one of the most trusted shopping experiences for pet owners, making it easy to find everything from food and toys to apparel and accessories.
As I explored Chewy's apparel category, I found myself asking a simple question:
"Why is buying clothes for dogs still so difficult?"
Pet parents aren't just purchasing a product, they're trying to imagine how it will fit a dog with a unique shape, size, and breed. A size chart alone doesn't always provide enough confidence to make that decision.
As a pet owner and product designer, I was drawn to this challenge. It felt like a great opportunity to explore how product design, visual guidance, and personalization could help pet parents shop with more certainty.
Dogs come in an incredible variety of shapes, sizes, and proportions, making it difficult for pet parents to confidently choose the right fit. This challenge becomes even more complex for mixed breeds, where standard breed-based sizing expectations may not apply.
Customer reviews revealed a recurring pain point
While reviewing customer feedback across Chewy's pet apparel category, I noticed that many low-rated reviews were not about product quality but about sizing confidence.
Customers frequently struggled to predict how apparel would fit their dog, even when sizing charts were available.
Recurring themes included:
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Sizing charts that didn't reflect actual fit
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Inconsistent sizing between brands
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Difficulty visualizing size differences
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Returns caused by selecting the wrong size
This suggested an opportunity to move beyond measurement-based sizing and provide more intuitive, visual, and personalized guidance.
How might we help pet parents feel more confident that the size they choose will actually fit their dog?
Project goals
• Reduce sizing uncertainty
• Increase purchase confidence
• Decrease returns caused by incorrect sizing
• Create a more engaging and personalized shopping experience
The opportunity is not simply to provide more sizing information, but to make sizing easier to understand. By combining visual guidance, breed context, and personalized recommendations, the experience could help customers feel more confident in their purchase decisions while reducing uncertainty around fit.
Current experience
Choosing the right apparel size for a pet requires customers to interpret measurements, breed information, and product-specific sizing charts. The current experience provides limited support for translating this information into a confident purchase decision, resulting in sizing confusion and customer frustration.
Solution 1: Visual Breed-Based Size Guide
Instead of relying solely on measurements, customers can compare their pet to familiar breed examples and visual silhouettes.
01
Visual Size Comparison
Replace abstract size labels with familiar breed examples and visual dog references.
03
Detailed Breed & Measurement Guidance
Combine breed references, weight ranges, and body measurements to support different shopping behaviors.
02
Instant Feedback When Switching Sizes
As users select different sizes, the reference dog updates in real time, helping them quickly evaluate whether a size feels appropriate for their pet before purchasing.
04
Learn How to Measure Your Dog
Provide measurement guidance directly within the sizing flow to reduce guesswork and improve fit confidence.
Solution 2:See It On Your Pet
Unlike the Visual Size Guide, this feature isn't intended to determine fit. Its purpose is to help customers visualize products on their own pet, creating a more personalized and engaging shopping experience while supporting purchase confidence
01
Visualize Products on Your Pet
Allows pet owners to upload a photo and preview how an outfit may look on their own dog before purchasing.
03
Complements Existing Sizing Tools
Works alongside the Visual Size Guide and Smart Fit recommendations to provide additional context when evaluating apparel options.
02
Bring Product Imagery Closer to Reality
Transforms standard product photos into a personalized experience, helping customers move beyond imagination and visualize products in their own context.
04
Creates a Delightful & Shareable Experience
Adds a fun and engaging layer to shopping by allowing pet owners to experiment with different looks, save favorites, and share them with family and friends.
Solution 3: Smart Fit Recommendation
Selecting the right size often requires customers to interpret measurements, breed information, and product-specific size charts. Smart Fit simplifies this process by translating information about a pet into a personalized size recommendation, making it especially helpful for mixed breeds and dogs that don't fit traditional breed-based sizing.
01
Personalized Size Recommendations
Provides a recommended size based on the pet's unique characteristics rather than relying solely on generic size charts.
03
Supports Diverse Pet Profiles
Helps customers with mixed breeds, rescue dogs, and pets that may not fit standard breed-based recommendations.
02
Simplifies Decision Making
Reduces the effort required to compare measurements, weight ranges, and product-specific sizing information.
04
Increases Purchase Confidence
Guides customers toward a recommended size, helping them feel more confident before adding an item to their cart.
Sizing Experience Full Flow
Impact
Expected outcomes
For Customers:
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Increased sizing confidence
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Easier product selection
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Reduced purchase anxiety
For Chewy:
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Fewer sizing-related returns
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Increased conversion
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Improved customer satisfaction
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Stronger differentiation
Reflection:
This project reinforced how confidence plays a major role in ecommerce purchases. While sizing information existed, customers still struggled because they lacked visual and personalized guidance. By combining visual examples, AI-assisted previews, and personalized recommendations, the experience shifts from guessing to confidence.