Shopping can be fun but also harrowing, especially in electronics or shoe stores. You can’t find help or can’t figure out if a specific product is in stock.
In the future, the shopping experience should be much better thanks to technology. The store will recognize you, dig into your shopping habits, and guide you in the right direction. If your favorite product is in the store, retailers will make sure you know through messaging.
That Minority Report-type technology is still many years away but will be possible with the magic of sensors, cameras, and data analytics. But some retailers have an early start: Some furniture stores are already using virtual reality so buyers can preview how furniture will look in a room.
Poking into your shopping habits and recognizing your face may sound too invasive, but retailers are trying to make the shopping experience better. It starts with products like Intel’s Responsive Retail Platform, which can track store inventory and respond to customer needs in real time.
RRP, announced on Monday, includes hardware and software that could take control of inventory and pass on real-time alerts to sales associates and customers in the store about what’s in stock.
For example, if you’re shopping for jeans, RRP could tell you if a particular size is available so you don’t have to shuffle through a stack. Or if you are trying on jeans, you could request a size to be delivered to the fitting room.
