In the shoe store of the future, the sales associate asking if you need help might be a wide-eyed, child-sized robot quizzing you on your preferences and displaying suggestions on a touch screen on its chest. If you go to the store, that is — you might have already had your feet scanned and confidently shop online, relying on artificial intelligence to tell you which pairs are most likely to match your size and style without having to try them on.
Feel like you’d miss the feeling of walking the aisles and stumbling on the perfect outfit by shopping online? One technology company says shopping with virtual reality headsets might only be a couple of years away.
The future of shopping was on display at the National Retail Federation’s expo and convention in New York this week, showcasing the latest gee-whiz technologies that could make their way to consumers in the next few years.
Virtual reality: Video game enthusiasts have been among the first consumers to jump on the virtual reality trend, but retailers are donning headsets, too. Chicago-based InContext Solutions says brands and retailers like Walgreens use its virtual store technology to test new promotions and store layouts.
Testing which products draw consumers’ eyes and which store layouts encourage them to linger and browse is quicker and easier in a virtual store than the mock stores some companies build at headquarters, and more immersive than computer mock-ups, said Tracey Wiedmeyer, InContext co-founder and chief technology officer.
As headsets get cheaper and more popular, InContext is betting retailers will open virtual stores to consumers too — maybe even in the next two or three years.
“We’re already having conversations with brands about what that might look like,” Wiedmeyer said.
Robotics: Simbe Robotics CEO Brad Bogolea said he noticed a lot more robots on display at this year’s trade show, even if some retailers, fearing backlash from people worried about the impact on humans’ jobs, are reluctant to acknowledge their use.
Today’s robots aren’t about to entirely replace human retail employees, but could affect the kind of work they do.
Simbe’s robot, named Tally, autonomously roams grocery and consumer goods store aisles, Roomba-like, capturing images of store shelves to make sure products are properly stocked and priced.
Automating tedious tasks can make employees more productive, Bogolea said.
Another robot on display, SoftBank Robotics’ Pepper, is designed to attract shoppers with big, colorfully lit eyes and expressive body language and hand gestures.
Pepper can handle basic customer service questions, narrow down what a shopper needs before pointing them to a sales associate for more help or share information about a product.
Because Pepper can judge shoppers’ gender, approximate age and expression, it also could be programmed to give one sales pitch to a child and another to a parent, and report to the retailer whether each customer left with a smile or frown.
“It’s never going to replace a worker, but it can minimize low added-value, repetitive tasks,” said Steve Carlin, vice president at SoftBank.
There are thousands of Peppers in stores and homes in Japan, Carlin said. They’re still rare in the U.S. Two California Westfield malls brought in Pepper robots in November to give customers directions and build holiday buzz, and a San Francisco technology store hosted one last year.
Personalization: Companies are pitching technology as way to boost sales and cut returns by making smarter, more personalized product recommendations.
Rocksbox, a jewelry subscription service that lets customers rent pieces, stocks more than 5,000 items — too many for an individual person to track, said founder and CEO Meaghan Rose. So it uses 150 points of data on each piece and a trio of algorithms to come up with recommendations for each customer, which employees can tweak as desired.
The algorithm does a better job choosing baubles than a human stylist choosing all three pieces alone, Rose said. But most shipments are at least in part picked by a person and all come with a note from the stylist.
“Technology allows you to provide that level of service in a way that’s not cost-prohibitive,” she said.
Another company, Findmine, uses artificial intelligence to help customers build outfits by recommending items that go with others a customer has added to an online shopping cart. Findmine makes the “complete the look” suggestions on menswear brand John Varvatos’s e-commerce site, but could be brought to in-store displays or employees’ tablets to help them make better recommendations, said co-founder and CEO Michelle Bacharach.
Both True Fit and Volumental make similar artificial intelligence-powered recommendations based on fit, collecting data from brands and shoppers to figure out which products tend to work well for customers with similar size and style preferences.
Customers are more likely to buy apparel and footwear online when they’re confident it will fit, said True Fit co-founder Romney Evans.
Sharing data on foot shapes and fit preferences with manufacturers can also help them improve the design of future products, said Lise Alm, vice president of operations and sales at Volumental, which uses 3-D foot scanners to help customers find better-fitting shoes faster.
Its foot scanning technology will be in 500 stores, including all New Balance flagships, by summer, she said.
Customization:
During a presentation at the trade show, Shoes of Prey co-founder and chief creative officer Jodie Fox said she envisions a day when consumers can walk up to a 3-D printer in their closet that can judge the day’s weather and owner’s plans for the day, suggest an outfit and build it on demand.
Some brands are experimenting with rapid on-demand production, citing customers’ desire for individuality and the ability to cut waste by rapidly increasing production of popular products rather than guessing how many pieces in each style and color will sell.
Shoes of Prey lets shoppers design their own shoes online, working off templates and adjusting size, style and color.
Women’s apparel company Eileen Fisher uses a Shima Seiki knitting machine that can create a seamless sweater from a computer-generated design in about 45 minutes, in part to reduce waste, said Samantha Burdett, who works in sales and product development at Shima Seiki.
E-commerce accessories-maker Thursday Finest sometimes brings its 700-pound knitting machine to pop-up shops to knit accessories like socks, hats and scarves with personalized colors for customers while they wait.
“We all want what we want, when we want it. And for basics, you want something where you don’t need to shop a bunch of stores to get something you like that fits,” said co-founder Veronika Harbik.
Twitter @laurenzumbach
