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Interactive Mirror Mirror on the Wall

This could be the future of shopping, on display this week at the National Retail Federation's annual convention was a boutique that allowed customers to try on merchandise, look in a mirror and have friend’s text message their thoughts of how it looked. More than a dozen companies, including big names like IBM and Cisco Systems, are demonstrating the latest retail technology in a faux clothing boutique where the line between e-tailing and bricks-and-mortar stores is erased. The new catchphrase is "social retailing," a term coined by the technology consulting firm IconNicholson that combines mobile communication, online networking sites like Facebook and traditional merchandising that could change the way we buy.

In this new world, our friends are constantly online and ready to advise whether those pants really do make our derrieres look big. Checkout lines are nonexistent because we buy items with our cellphones while browsing the store. Retailers know our sizes and text-message us personalized coupons when we walk through their doors.

The equipment and software can be costly and depend on large networks of savvy consumers to be successful. Still, glimpses of this future are popping up in stores. Circuit City allows shoppers to order products online and pick them up at the store. At some branches of Stop & Shop, a grocer based in Massachusetts, customers can use Web tablets to send a wireless message to the deli while they shop. They receive a notice when their order is ready.

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Posted on January 29, 2007
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