Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the world through the NikeiD concept where shoppers can choose the colors,
sizes and features of several parts of their Nike shoes as well as inscribe their
names or expressions on it.
On the luxury front, the use of technology within retail stores remains
limited to the widely adopted flat screen televisions that feature a mix of the
brand's products, runway shows and history among others. This is, however,
no longer enough and the time has come for luxury brands to be challenged in
the way that store experience and merchandizing is presented. We can herald
brands like Armani which used its newly opened New York flagship store -
designed as a futuristic space of seamless movements - to mark a departure
from the line-up of luxury stores that strive for consistency. These brands
have, in the process, fallen into the trap of “sameness”, which explains
Armani's efforts to break the mold of identical, monolithic and repetitive
retail spaces that luxury has bowed to in the last decade. According to the
brand, sameness now belongs to the past and cannot match the experience
offered by a totally original store through the aesthetic excitement of fine,
contemporary architecture. However, even Armani's contemporary architec-
ture is no longer enough for today's digital-minded luxury consumer. This
beautiful architectural masterpiece must now be complemented by digital
techniques that will further add to the immersion that clients feel in the store
environment.
There are endless possibilities of how luxury brands could use digital
technology to enhance the shopping experience and ensure a stronger affili-
ation with the brand, even in an increasingly crowded marketplace. Ten sug-
gestions on how these may be approached are as follows:
1. Dressing room interactivity in the form of enabling the use of touch-
screen mirrors installed in fitting rooms. These could enable the view-
ing of the product being tried on, in all the variety of colors, shapes and
sizes that it exists in, without the shopper having to find them on the
shop floor or calling the attention of a sale representative. The interac-
tive view can simply be achieved by inputting the product code followed
by a simple OK on a screen. This will not only add excitement to the
shopping experience but will also lead to a quicker product selection. It
will also help to curb the current practice where shoppers avoid the fit-
ting rooms and, instead, take clothes home to try on. Interactive dressing
rooms will drive shoppers to try on clothes and subsequently reduce the
rate of product returns as a result.
2. Responsive mirrors that enable shoppers to see pictures of themselves
in all the items they try on. This means that instead of narrowing the
choice to the shopper's memory recall of the way the clothes fitted, they
can actually place images of themselves on the responsive or interactive
mirrors to visualize the clothes and their fitting collectively. This will
likely increase purchase probability and will go a long way in ensuring
