Today's customers expect more choices, experience and brand interaction. How does technology aid in gratifying their demands? Retail offers creative dressing choices for customers.


There are two important moments that manipulate a customer, and motivate him to take the buying decision. One is the time when the customer is taking the apparel off the rack, and second is the time when he or she tries it on in the fitting room. Retailers are putting their efforts to making the shopping experience more enticing and cherishable for the customers by giving more choices in the fitting room.


A wall that turns opaque giving privacy to the customer when he wants to try the clothes on, and turns transparent when he wants to show off his outfit to his friends technology has come up with interactive dressing rooms in retail outlets. Shopping time of the customer is reduced with the advent of size matching machines that take out the customers measurements within seconds,which makes the shopping process, easier, get clothes with much better fit, and less time consuming. Interactive mirrors, 3D scanning of body measurements,and holographic sales people; all these may seem to be like a part of a science fiction movie, but is now in reality, and would be an integral part of shopping in the near future.


Size Matching Machines:


New technology offer customers to shop for clothes that are fit and flatter.Retailers opt for size matching machines in their stores, which minimize the time spent in dressing rooms. With the measurements collected from retailers,clothes are tailored more accurately. Retailers also get an idea of the size of apparels they need to keep in stock. They could also save time in folding and re-arranging rejected garments. With the measurements collected a digital image is formed in which the customer can try on the clothes. The shopper tries on the selected garment virtually, and confirms whether the dress will fit him like a tent or a tourniquet.


At Bloomingdale, sale of denim apparels shot up during March with body scanners. This technology helps retailers to eliminate one of the biggest issues of sales;returns. In case of online shopping, a study indicates that approximately 20%of the online purchases are sent back by the customer, and the main reason is sizing issue.

Interactive Dressing rooms:


A Prada store in Beverly Hills has an 8 foot glass booth which comes to life once the customer steps in. Walls fog over so that the customer can change clothing. The dressing room consists of a small booth around eight feet square, with one wall forming the door. This turns solid while the customer dresses, and clears off when they want to show their outfit to their friends outside. The second wall has a mirror which includes a camera and a display that enables the customer to view all sides of the garment. The remaining two walls have two closets; one for hanging clothes and the other one includes shelves. The sensors attached to the closets detect the electronic tags and activates a touch screen. The selected item, and other related information such as; color, fabric, size etc are displayed in the screen.


The electronic tag facilitates the retail staff to engage the customer for a longer time. If the customer is not interested to buy the product at that very point of time, still technology options are available, wherein details of the clothes that the customer had tried on can be saved, and viewed later on through the internet at another time.


There is also an option wherein the customer can invite friends. Through their mobile, they can send a personal message to their friends. Then by clicking on the url, and logging in to the retailers website, the friends can view the customer at the shop, and can share their opinion regarding the apparel tried by the customer.


A London based firm has developed a 3D dressing room called Swivel which facilitates shoppers to virtually try the clothes on a computer monitor of television screen. Unique Solutions Design, a Canadian based firm operates 65 size matching stations in their stores all across US. These booths scan approximately 2, 00,000 shoppers in a month. Gardeur Shop in Germany features smart dressing rooms with mirrors that give useful information like price, fabric, and maintenance regarding the apparel which is customer is trying. Gap and Banana Republic offers fitting rooms with call button facility through which the customer can call the sales assistants to bring more items to them.

Size measuring machines and interactive dressing rooms are one good way to differentiate their own store from that of their competitors, and draw more customers into the shop. These technological advancements also serve as a potential marketing tool for retailers. They are a wave of the future and will play an integral role in driving sales.


References:

  1. Milanostyle.com
  2. Latimes.com