High-tech dressing rooms become virtual reality
New technology should make it possible for customers to solicit opinions from friends remotely.
By Teresa Méndez | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the April 20, 2007 edition
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These are heady days for the lowly fitting room.
In his bestselling 1999 book, "Why We Buy," Paco Underhill, who pioneered the study of retail anthropology, underscores the importance of the dressing room. It's a retail space where, on average, a shopper spends 3.5 very important minutes. "There are more sales lost in the dressing room than perhaps in any other place in the context of the store," says Mr. Underhill, talking by phone from the New York headquarters of his research and consulting firm Envirosell.
Yet little has changed since the fitting room became a feature in department stores more than a century ago. Heeding the cries of consumers, some retailers have begun to invest in cosmetic improvements: a little more space here, more flattering lighting there.
But technology developers have a more dramatic makeover in mind. With new advances unveiled this year, shoppers could one day step into an intelligent dressing room where they'll solicit opinions from friends who aren't actually in the store or forgo the hassle of changing altogether.
A "social retailing" mirror, by digital technology agency IconNicholson, lets customers beam their image to anyone with access to the Internet. It was a hit earlier this year at the National Retail Federation convention in New York. Last month at CeBIt, a consumer technology trade show in Germany, the Heinrich-Hertz-Institut of Berlin exhibited the "virtual mirror," which projects different styles of shoes onto a customer's feet – without the need for a physical shoe. At the same tradeshow last year, Düsseldorf-based Metro Group presented something similar for apparel.
On a recent Thursday, during a demonstration in IconNicholson's New York offices, the three-paneled interactive mirror was balky. It had just been set up, and a preview feature that digitally superimposes to-scale outfits over the viewer wasn't working well. The size and lighting were off. Video images were also slow to stream to the networking website where friends can log on.
These little hiccups can pose major problems when technology is introduced in a store. "If it doesn't work, it isn't neutral," says Mr. Underhill. "It's a negative – meaning, if you walk into a store and there's clearly a piece of technology there and it isn't working, it presents a worse image for the space than if it just didn't exist."
It was also hard to tell how some of the mirror's bells and whistles might play out. Would the music that accompanies outfit changes be atmospheric or irritating?
Yet the technology was undeniably alluring in both concept (trusted fashion advisers always on call) and cool factor (seeing their digital text message commentary pop up on the mirror's surface).
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