A new shopping aid or just a passing fad?

Orgasizer, a Belgian company aiming to help people buy clothes as gifts, has been featured on one of our favourite sites - Springwise.com

The idea is fairly simple. Users register, fill in all their details including sizes and preferences in a variety of styles of clothing and then decide what information they want to share and who with. The idea is that family and friends could then log on, check sizes etc before going to purchase that all important gift.

The benefit for the shopper - they don't have to actually ask the intended recipient and ruin the surprise or possibly risk causing offence.

The benefit for the recipient - well, the site also allows you to create wish lists and reminders of important days so not only will your friends be less likely to forget that special occasion but you'll get a gift you actually want that fits (that's the theory anyway).

And the benefit for retailers - it might encourage more people to actually buy clothes as gifts because people won't have to worry about whether its something the recipient actually wants but also, in theory, the site would mean a reduction in returns.

I can see what they are trying to achieve but personally I'm surprised that this idea hasn't already appeared as an application on social networking sites like Facebook or an app for an iPhone.

Having said that I haven't seen the actual site so I haven't been able to properly assess the idea. (All I got was an error message but, according to Springwise, the organisers are still ironing some issues with the site so hopefully it will be available for us all to look at soon.)

But, if the site does come to fruition is it something retailers will welcome? Springwise suggests it may be something retailers will wish to sponsor or otherwise get involved in but what do you think?

Read the full Springwise feature by clicking here