New online startups offer shoppers more ways to buy lingerie

Shopping for bras, particularly online, can be an exercise in frustration. Changing fashions and better fit tools on sellers’ websites are making it a bit easier.

The recent popularity of bralettes and sports bras with less-complicated sizing has made people feel more confident that what they buy online will fit when it gets to them.

And some online sellers use shopper surveys and other feedback to help find the right fit. Shoppers can sometimes chat with fit experts—people in addition to chatbots—eroding one key benefit of store shopping. The new online operators also offer a generous range of sizes, and focus on making shoppers feel self-confident.

Amazon, which has been expanding its fashion selection, started offering its private-label lingerie brands Mae and Arabella last year. Pop star Rihanna launched a lingerie collection under the Savage X Fenty name.

These upstarts are helping power the $12.4 billion industry, which grew 17 percent from 2012 to last year, according to the research firm Euromonitor. The new competition is taking a bite out of sales at L Brands’ Victoria’s Secret empire. Revenue at stores dropped eight percent for the year that ended Feb. 3.

“It’s hard to get service in stores,” said Wendy Liebmann, CEO of WSL Strategic Retail. “These online startups are finding a way to blend technology while making it more personal.”