Webcam Measurements for Buying Clothes Online

For Asaf Moses, the most embarrassing part about buying clothing online is wearing ill-fitting purchases out of a sense of guilt. “You’re not satisfied, and you don’t look right, but you try and make the clothes work because you paid for them,” says the 29-year-old Israeli, who estimates only 1 in 10 online purchases fit the way he expects. A few years ago, Moses piled his hallway full of failed acquisitions, free for the taking. “My friends left looking stylish and happy,” he says. “But I felt very frustrated.”

Moses, who graduated from the economics program at Germany’s Humboldt University of Berlin in 2009, decided something needed to be done. Together with his graduate school buddy Sebastian Schulze, he founded UPcload, a Berlin startup that allows shoppers to take precise body measurements using a webcam. “The measurements are on average more accurate than those taken by a professional tailor,” says Moses, who plans to launch the service early next year.