Due to the popularity of online shopping, consumers are used to seeing cool new features and technological advances available to use during their online shopping experiences, but unfortunately it is rare that we see new technology brought into the brick and mortar stores. One issue many consumers have with shopping in-stores is their negative experiences in the dressing room. Not only do you have to try on item after item, but you have to look at yourself in a mirror under fluorescent lighting (which unfortunately is not flattering), and then repeatedly leave the room to flag down a sales person to grab different sizes, colors and styles – it’s an exhausting process to say the least. Well, designer Rebecca Minkoff wanted to change this, so she brought in technology and partnered with eBay to create a whole new customer experience and environment for their dressing rooms – the interactive mirror.
Here’s a few of the problems the interactive mirrors help to solve:
- Ideas for outfits: Walking into a store full of clothing can be overwhelming and even if you think you’ve seen everything, chances are you haven’t. The interactive mirror allows shoppers to effectively look through all the merchandise available in-stores. And rather than adding it to a cart, shoppers “add to dressing room” and once the merchandise is ready in the dressing room the customer will receive a text message to head back to their room.
- Lighting: Most dressing rooms these days have fluorescent lighting which unfortunately has a way of bringing out every flaw and not making customers feel great in the clothes they are about to purchase. The interactive mirrors let customers shopping at Rebecca Minkoff control the lighting in the dressing room and choose from a variety of lighting settings so they not only feel better about looking in the mirror, but also so they can get a good idea of what the outfit will look like in many different settings, ie: “Soho after dark” or “Brooklyn in the morning.”
- Exchanging sizes: Since the interactive mirror already knows what you have in the dressing room, it’s easy to exchange out colors, styles, and even grab more apparel. All customers have to do is click on a new size, color or style, and the information will be sent to a sales associate who will bring it straight to your room. They even included a feature that tells the customer how long the wait will be before their clothes arrive.
- Easy checkout: If customers have the Rebecca Minkoff app and PayPal, they can actually just check out right in the comfort of the dressing room.
- Saves picks for later: If customers decide they want to think about the items the tried on and not buy anything at the moment, the interactive mirror will text them a digital record of the exact pieces and sizes they tried on in case they change their mind.
Although the interactive mirror creates a great experience for customers shopping with Rebecca Minkoff, it also creates some major advantages for the company. Capturing shopping sessions is a great way to collect data and see what customers in different stores like. The brand can then easily turn around and market the products that seem to be the most popular.
Rebecca Minkoff has an exclusive contract with eBay over the interactive mirror, so unfortunately we won’t be seeing them anywhere else for a while, but if you’re near a Rebecca Minkoff store you’ll have to try it out. It’s fascinating to see how technology is being used in retail these days to enhance customer’s experiences and will be even more interesting to see how Rebecca Minkoff competitors chose to respond to this amazing technology.
Check out this video to get an inside look at how Rebecca Minkoff’s interactive mirrors work.