Life is such a chronic contradiction. We love shopping, we hate trying things on. Worse still is the experience of having to sheepishly ask the assistant for the next size up.
Now, thanks be to Jesus, Ralph Lauren have understood our hatred of awkward unnecessary human contact and installed smart mirrors. Yes, the changing rooms are now smart.
The touch screen mirrors allow shoppers to request different sizes, colours and styles and be as akward as possible without much disruption to the sales staff. Le reve. The giant tablet even lets shopper’s manual control the lighting to really put their outfit of choice through the test.
The company behind the mirrors, Oak Labs Interactive are on a mission to change the shopping experience. "We are on the cusp of a tectonic shift," says CEO Healey Cypher. Despite a rise in ecommerce, he believes more informative data for retailers will be found in the real world.
Healy Cypher, the man who wants us all to have a better shopping experience <3
By tracking each item that enters a dressing room, Ralph Lauren can determine how shoppers are interacting with its clothes. Is a jacket frequently being tried on, but isn't selling? This likely indicates the look is popular, but the fit isn't.
"There's this narrative that ecommerce collects better data – but online, it's black and white. The physical world contains all these shades of grey that are truly interesting," says Cypher.
Sounds like a win-win for everyone. Now if they could start working on one that could style us, tan us and shave our legs too we’d be eternally grateful.
