What will shopping look like in the future?
Be honest, we know you’ve always dreamed of having Cher Horowitz’s high tech wardrobe. That dream may become a (kind of) reality according to The Huffington Post.
Retail futurist Doug Stephens notes, “Physical shopping will become a lot more fun because it’s going to have to be.” As online shopping becomes more and more convenient, stores are looking to create exceptional in person shopping experiences to compete with the ease of clicking through a website.
Some of them sound awesome:
“Shoppers just touch their smartphones to a coded tag on the item and then select a color and size on their phone. Technology in the store keeps track of the items, and by the time a shopper is ready to try them on, they’re already at the dressing room.”
Instead of rummaging through stuffed racks and fumbling with tags only to find they’re out of your size, this would streamline the process. That sounds pretty fantastic. Our enthusiasm starts to waver at holograms.
Yes. Holograms.
“British digital agency Engage created a Virtual Style Pod that scanned shoppers and created a life-size image onto which luxury clothing from brands like Alexander McQueen and DKNY were projected.”
Isn’t the best part of shopping being able to feel the glorious softness of cashmere? Sure a sweater may look fantastic, but what if it’s so itchy you break out in hives? Or what if you see yourself in a pencil skirt and it makes your ass rival Beyonce and Nicki Minaj, but you can’t walk let alone strut your stuff, because it’s so tight?
Yes, your hair gets messed up, you end up full of static and sometimes it feels like shopping is an epic workout but physically trying on clothes is part of the shopping process. That said, the fact that we live in a world so advanced we can hologram ourselves for shopping purposes is pretty bad ass.
What do you think? To hologram or not to hologram?