At This Store, the Fitting-Room Mirrors Know All Essay Example
At This Store, the Fitting-Room Mirrors Know All Essay Example

At This Store, the Fitting-Room Mirrors Know All Essay Example

Available Only on StudyHippo
Topics:
  • Pages: 3 (778 words)
  • Published: October 31, 2018
View Entire Sample
Text preview

Despite the unusually mild weather for November in New York City, Ralph Lauren's Polo flagship store on Fifth Avenue is fully prepared for the upcoming holiday season.

In Ralph Lauren's Polo flagship, the three-story building has a ski-lodge appearance and is adorned with white lights, holly, and stockings. The top floor features a "living room" with a functional fireplace, cowhide rug, and a couch where knit dresses, faux-fur lined cuts, and pullover sweaters are attractively displayed. A tall blonde woman peruses a white cashmere turtleneck and can use the touchscreen mirror in front of her to view the piece and request alternate sizes or colors. The fitting rooms are highly advanced.

Using radio-frequency identification technology, a room can track items through their tags, identifying each item that enters and displaying it on a mirror that also functions as a touchscreen. Shoppe

...

rs have the ability to interact with the mirror, which operates like a large tablet, in order to adjust lighting, request alternate items, or receive fashion advice from a sales representative. According to Healey Cypher, who is dedicated to enhancing brick-and-mortar shopping through technology, physical stores have more interesting nuances than ecommerce because they contain shades of grey. He is the CEO and co-founder of Oak Labs Interactive, the company responsible for creating these interactive mirrors. Recently, Oak Labs Interactive announced a $4 million fundraising campaign.

Wing Venture Capital has led a seed round worth $1 million to improve Cypher's technology and make it more accessible to retailers. Cypher aims to revolutionize the retail experience in America, anticipating a significant shift in the industry. Although it is still early days, Cypher is enthusiastic about th

View entire sample
Join StudyHippo to see entire essay

prospect of implementing smart mirrors in fitting rooms nationwide and shares their vision passionately.

Retailers can benefit greatly from collecting data on how shoppers interact with their merchandise, including tracking items tried on in dressing rooms to determine why certain items may not be selling. Additionally, retailers can monitor how customers interact with their touchscreens and sales associates. Oak Labs can analyze this data and provide actionable insights for retailers. One example of this technology in action is Ralph Lauren's Polo flagship store in New York City, which has interactive fitting rooms. Nordstrom and Rebecca Minkoff have also experimented with similar technologies in their stores. The similarity between these retailers' approaches is no coincidence, as their launches were overseen by the former head of eBay's retail innovation team, who also oversaw the launch at Ralph Lauren.In April 2015, Cypher founded Oak Labs after leaving eBay and PayPal due to a dialing back of his corporate responsibilities and a sense of resentment over the splitting events. The original text contains which should be preserved.

His co-founders, who have had prior experience at companies such as Microsoft, Gap, Blackstone, and eBay's retail innovation division, share his enthusiasm for combining online and offline shopping experiences. However, obstacles such as privacy concerns stand in the way of Healey's futuristic vision of shopping enhanced with technology in the next five to ten years. For instance, shoppers may feel uncomfortable with mirrors that track their clothing choices and sales associates may not appreciate their movements being monitored by their employers.

Ralph Lauren can use the interactive mirror to monitor the speed and frequency of its associates' responses to shopper requests. The cost

of installing and running the touchable mirror is initially prohibitive. Healey refused to reveal the cost but claimed that it pays for itself. Although this may be true, it implies that the technology is expensive, despite the sales increase reported by Rebecca Minkoff.

Oak Labs and its investors are confident that their technology will provide sufficient value to overcome any obstacles. Their technology offers an additional level of personalization and convenience to customers, benefiting sales associates by providing knowledge of customer needs and potentially leading to more sales. Retailers also benefit from in-store consumer behavior data for strategy adjustments. The cost per unit is less than $11,000 according to Cypher. Currently not tracking individuals' purchasing history, customization levels are expected to increase as consumers become more comfortable with the technology. An image accompanying the text depicts a fitting room mirror utilizing Oak Labs' technology.

Cypher believes that it's feasible to establish a universe where the dressing room is cognizant of the buyer's preferred music, writing ambiance, and all previously tried-on items via phone swiping. In Cypher's vision for the future, the dressing room would tap into extensive data points such as customer purchase history, lighting preferences, and prior sales associate interactions. This could offer significant benefits in enhancing the retail experience for shoppers. "We have limitless possibilities," he asserts.
Related:

Get an explanation on any task
Get unstuck with the help of our AI assistant in seconds
New