Retail Stores Come to Life: Innovations in Virtual Fitting Rooms

Innovations in the retail experience are happening in retail stores such as Ralph Lauren, Rebecca Minkoff, La Chapelle and many others

What makes the shopping experience all the more thrilling for customers is due to interactive fitting rooms. These virtual fitting rooms indeed make purchasing items more enjoyable and efficient.

Upon entering the fitting room, you’ll be greeted with a glowing light from behind the frame. Healey Cypher, Co-founder and CEO of Oak Labs says “The reason we do this is to prompt you to change it. This idea comes from game design theory. Whenever you have a new experience, that first interaction has to be immediate.”

Meet the Oak Mirror

Virtual fitting rooms are spearheaded by Oak Labs in the US. It was founded by retail and tech experts who develop cutting-edge technologies for brick-and-mortar shops. Re-humanizing the retail experience is key in this innovation. Putting human interaction at a premium drives the tech developments brewing inside Oak Labs.

Oak Labs developed the Oak Mirror to create a seamless and elegant fitting room experience. The Oak Mirror has a touch screen installed for shoppers to have a virtual reality experience inside a store. It detects RAIN RFID tagged merchandise as it enters the fitting room. This is then synchronised with the store’s inventory system and online catalog. It can provide intelligent product recommendations, while efficiently connecting customers with sales associates.

The Virtual Fitting Room Experience

Customers can see how the clothes look on them, change the lighting and setting, and swipe different looks to choose from. Through this interactive mirror, they can also call a store assistant to try other items and sizes for fitting. What’s more, the mirror also recommends clothes and accessories to complete their look. If the customer is still pondering on making a purchase, they can choose to send the information to their smartphone and buy it later.

And this technology is also a winner for retailers large and small.

How Retailers Benefit from Virtual Fitting Rooms

The Oak Mirror collects large amounts of data for retailers. It captures real metrics on customer behavior, operations, and productivity. Retailers will be able to know how long shoppers are staying in the fitting rooms, which items convert the most, and which attributes frequently lead to sales. Businesses are able to analyse incredibly helpful data to develop their store operations and strategies. Plus, it can help them increase customer loyalty and improve customer service.

The Redefinition of Retail

Creating valuable customer experiences is the driving force behind the evolution of physical retail stores. Retailers and marketers should keep in mind that we are in an era that many prefer to spend money on great experiences rather than just getting material things. Finding a good balance in offering products while making the shopping experience more fulfilling is key to success in this evolving industry.

Indeed, retail is not dying at all. It is changing, evolving with the times. Innovations are redefining what it means to stay in business and why people will always come back for more.