If you want to sell something like clothes where purchase without trial results in very high returns, you need to build this into your model. The way Old Navy does returns means you can buy multiples and send 80%+ of them back very easily. Their business model is completely based on anything less than 100% returns is a win, so they optimize very differently than say, "how can we reduce returns to single digits?"
Pretty much every clothing brand out there, and usually more often than once a year.
Also at this point they don't give a damn about quality controls. E.g. there was a time when you could order shoes online rather reliably. Today? What you get in the mail is barely correlated with the size you specified on the order.
From the last 10 days: we order two pairs for our kids, size X and Y - which we selected by actually following measurement instructions of the shoe company. When the order comes, it it turns out size X is too big for the younger kid, size Y is too small for the older. We return those, and order again, this time sizes (X-1) and (Y+1). What we got is... the (X-1) shoes were identical to X shoes (therefore still too large); the (Y+1) shoes were like Y+3 - way overshooting the target.
This was same models, same company, with no logistical confusion according to labels. Just one of multiple similar events we had (and many more I heard about from others) where the size of shoes received was pretty much random. So this is one category of goods that we're going back to buying in person.
And yes, that means dragging a 1.5 y.o. and a 4 y.o. into a shoe store in a large mall - the very one I mentioned above. Yes, our kids will likely get overwhelmed by lights and wares and ads, and start making all kinds of scenes. I don't care. If the store doesn't want a scene, they should not be routinely fucking up their order sizes.
I have never experienced this buying shoes from both big and small brands. Adidas, Nike, Allbirds, Converse, John Elliott, Beckett Simonon, etc. Maybe kids shoes are a different ballgame?
Also never experienced this with clothes. I buy everything online and it always fits as I would expect from the measurements listed on the website.
I have experienced this with Levi jeans. I buy a nice pair of jeans, they fit well, look nice, affordable etc. I need more jeans, so I go to the store a month later and try on a bunch of different jeans. One pair says they are the same size but fit entirely different, so I chalk it up as being a different "fit" of jeans. Nope, when I get home, they were an IDENTICAL pair, but fit like a different size.
I once talked to someone from the jeans industry and he attributed this phenomenon to brands switching between different manufacturers for their fabrics. So thismanufacturer A might produce the fabric at a weight of XX g/m² and, next year, manufacturer B might produce it at YY g/m². XX and YY will be close but often not exactly the same and this will affect the fit.
For me (not the guy you responded to) the big thing is shoes. When I find a pair I like I’ll often buy two or three extra pairs (often online) in other colorways but when those wear out they usually aren’t made anymore or I want to try something new. Boots and shoes (especially rock climbing shoes) seem to never be consistently sized, even inside the same brand, and I need to try them on to get them to fit right. Can’t really think of anything else off the top of my head!
I do find shoes sometimes have inconsistent sizing between brands, but they usually say something like "runs 1/2 size small". Worst comes to worst I can compare size charts with a pair that I already own.
It's never a crapshoot where I can't rely on their sizing at all.
This is why I still buy clothes, shoes and sport gears at stores. Returning products takes time and you still don't have what you wanted to buy.
If I buy a new item of the very same model I bought before, that's OK to buy online. Unfortunately companies keep changing models every year.