Real Reality vs. Virtual Reality – How the Latter Helps the Former in Retail
We’ve talked about many different technologies here in the ShoppingCenters.com e-newsletter – from mobile to social media to GPS mapping services. Here’s a new one that may already be on your radar but you haven’t quite yet taken the plunge: virtual reality. You’ve probably seen commercials where someone is wearing fancy ski goggles but they’re actually watching, well, we don’t even know, but based on their reactions, it’s probably pretty cool and immersive. “We’re seeing clothing companies using it to try out virtual dressing rooms, or as a way to bring shoppers into the store with VR marketing campaigns,” wrote Mark Hardy, CEO at InContext Solutions, in an article on LinkedIn. VR can also help retail behind the scenes. “VR allows teams to go over new in-store ideas and visualize changes within a hyper-realistic virtual store, and then test those concepts through virtual walk-throughs.”
Walmart to Take Flight with Service Drones In-store?
Remember when Amazon made a big fuss about using drones for delivery? Your humble e-newsletter editor wasn’t all that impressed. Not that drones don’t have their place in society, like for this, but using a drone to expedite a delivery of the latest Adam Sandler DVD seemed to be a overkill – just a bit. But now, Walmart thinks it may have found a use for drones – in-store. They recently filed a patent for “dispatching an airborne drone to an item located within a retail shopping facility, securing that item of inventory to the airborne drone, and then directing the airborne drone to carry the item of inventory to a delivery area located within the retail shopping area.” Could these drones replace those giant, rolling ladders to access those hard-to-reach shelves? Time will tell.
When You Think of the World’s Top Flagship Stores, Do You think of These?
Quick, do you have a favorite flagship store… one that, when you’re on vacation, you have to visit while you’re in that store’s city? The old F.A.O. Schwarz store in NYC that was memorably featured in the Tom Hanks movie, Big, comes to mind. Cate Trotter, the Head of Trends at UK-based retail consultant Insider Trends, put together a list of the top 50 flagship stores around the world (a U.S. company is in the #1 slot, though they were – allegedly – listed in no particular order). Do you agree with this list? What would you have included or booted from the list? Tell us via Twitter or on our “Contact” page.
DMM’s Trend Demographics!
Why use Trend Demographics? They’re great for clients who want to assess the size of a potential market and determine whether their products or services are reaching their most important consumers. The latest DMM Trend Demographics have been cross-referenced with the exact locations of individual U.S. shopping centers and mall locations and then aggregated to create our exclusive, enhanced demographics data. We call them “Buffer Zones.” Our smart data “Buffer Zones” (not these “buffer zones”) reflect demographic information for 5, 10, and 20-miles around each individual U.S shopping center/mall. Click here to find out more. .
