This New High-Tech Store Is the Future of Shopping
Don’t you just hate those awkward moments when you’re in a fitting room and you need different sizes but you don’t want to run around the store half naked looking for it? Well, our girl Rebecca Minkoff totally gets it — which is why she put smart fitting rooms as well as other tech features created by Ebay in her Manhattan store.
When you step into her beautiful store, you’ll see huge touchscreen mirrors along the side wall. After a few simple taps, you can order refreshments like green tea, coffee or something bubbly. Then, while you’re browsing around the store, a sales representative will meet you with your drink order. (Rebecca, you know us too well.)
Using one of the smart mirrors, you can thumb through all of the available pieces and add anything that interests you to your smart list. Sales reps will go on an Easter egg hunt around the store, looking for all the things on your list. After they’ve finished, you’ll receive a text, notifying you that your fitting room is ready. And yes, if you see something super cute on your way to the fitting room (it’s bound to happen), you can grab it and bring it along with you. The room will immediately recognize the new piece you brought in, add it to the touchscreen smart mirror and display everything that is in your fitting room.
The smart mirror instantly becomes your BFF. You can request different sizes of the things you have and ask for new pieces to try on without leaving your fitting room at all. And just like Uber, the smart mirror will display a picture of who’s bringing you your clothes, the name of the sales rep and an ETA.
When shoppers are thumbing through the catalogs, they can pair items together to make a cute #OOTD and, in return, Minkoff utilizes that data to get a better sense of what her consumers like and don’t like as much. In an interview with Fast Company, Minkoff said that she’s already expecting her competitors to come in and check out the tech, so hopefully we’ll be seeing more of these smart fitting rooms in other stores soon.
Do you think you’d prefer traditional shopping or the Rebecca Minkoff experience? What features can you see being added to a techie department store? Tell us in the comments!
