“How can we use (immersive) technology to create a better user experience that also benefits stores in the retail sector?”
We started doing research for our concept; we looked at the retail situation today; at the technological advancements currently being made; we did anthropological research in stores to figure out customer behaviour; and eventually we brought all this research together to lay a foundation for our prototypes.
We also created an app, and a book that serve as a general overview of our entire process during this project (from start to finish). The app gives a quick overview of all our concepts and is sorted into a few store archetypes that we created. The book will aid Mirabeau's future research on their retail branch, and could also be used by the next group of graduation interns as a guideline.
Traditional store: The customers can experience the products, and will have an easier time finding them. Balance between experience and transaction-based.
Experience based store: Store that provides branded experiences to drive loyalty and advocacy. Customers want to have fun and want to be inspired.
Transaction based store: For customers that like to go into a store, get some great value deals and get out fast. Payment should be seamless.
The concepts that we picked are the CURL, an in-store virtual assistant; an interactive clothing rack, including a mannequin with projections; and an interactive closet with light-up drawers. To combine these three prototypes we created a customer journey;
This concept was based on observations we did when people interacted with staff. Oftentimes it seemed to be awkward (for both parties involved). When asked about this, customers often replied with something along the lines of “I’d like to be greeted by staff, but I just want to be left alone for the remaining duration of my visit to a clothing store”.
They also told us that they only have interactions with staff members while asking questions or paying for their picked items. The CURL erases the need for awkward conversations between staff members and customers, and will help a store to be more efficient altogether.
We took our own observations, mixed them with the results from the interview and from that we created one of our three main concepts. We combined technology with a standard clothing rack, which created an interactive clothing rack that can show information on the items hanging from it once you take them off the rack. This will result in the customer having to spend less time looking through clothes to find the tags, and more accesible product information.
Once an item is picked up, it is projected onto the mannequin including a suiting background and its product information.
This makes it possible to find your favourite items quickly. The light-up drawers will turn on, be dimmer or turn off to show which ones contain specific products based on your import. Based on observations and furniture stores like IKEA. People like uncluttered stores, and this concept is just for that. It puts all of the available stock into these clothes, that can be used in a way that IKEA uses its stockrooms.
