Dressing Rooms Of The Future

The Forbes magazine gives us a nice look into the future

teractive mirrors, 3D scanners and holographic sales assistants may sound like they belong in a sci-fi movie, but they’ll likely soon be part of your future shopping sprees.

That’s because, in an effort to make shopping more enticing and inviting, retail developers are adding amenities like these to their fitting rooms.

Bloomingdales, for example, was one of the first retailers to test a social retailing system in its New York flagship store last year, and Mitsukoshi, a Japanese department store chain, began experimenting with an “intelligent fitting room” in 2004. The fitting room gives customers the opportunity to check available sizes and styles of the items they are trying from inside the fitting room.

In Depth: World’s Innovative Dressing Rooms

“When you are in a store looking to buy an item of clothing, there are two moments of truth–when you take it off the shelf and when you try it on in the store,” says Fred Dust, partner at Ideo, a business design consultant firm with offices worldwide. “The better the retailer makes the trying on experience, the more likely the shopper will buy the item.”

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