Dive Brief:

• Combatant Gentlemen, an apparel e-retailer that sells lower-priced business attire, is using gaming technology to appeal to the young men who buy their suits.

• The Los Angeles-based e-retailer uses temporary pop-ups that use a “magic mirror” with a camera developed for video games. Shoppers try on suits and key information like price, fabric, and item name shows up on a TV screen and allows interaction with the wearer. Arm motions allow swipe-throughs to view other products or add an item to an online shopping cart.

• Purchases can be made at the pop-up or at home. The shopping cart is the same either way, so inventory and fulfillment is smooth. Items are shipped to the customer that day.

Dive Insight:

Online-only retailers like Warby Parker and Birchbox have found success in using physical stores to enable more interaction with customers. Here, business apparel e-retailer Combatant Gentlemen is turning to the same gaming technology that is so familiar to its target customer.

For customers unable to get to its pop-ups, the retailer has also developed what it calls Fit Tech technology that allows shoppers to virtually try on clothes using their height and body mass information, which it says provides 98% accuracy. As e-retailers increasingly face challenges in overcoming the real advantages of physical stores, leveraging technology in these ways shows real progress. Two-year-old Combatant Gentlemen has reported $5 million in 2013 sales and a low 4% return rate.