Mirror mirror on the wall: eBay to put interactive mirrors in fitting rooms

eBay wants to reach the brick and mortar world, and it is doing so with the flair that is to be expected of a tech savvy store.

The company wants to erect interactive mirrors in its stores too enhance the shopping experience. The feature is already being modeled at the Rebecca Minkof store in New York and San Francisco with other partnerships in more cities in the pipeline.

When walking into the store, shoppers are greeted with large mirrors that double as touchscreens. No longer will it be a must to physically search for clothes whilst messing up neatly packed clothes and trying to reach for an item whilst another shopper stands between the two of you. Here a shopper can swipe through the store’s entire catalogue. Tap what you want to try on and order a drink whilst you wait. Once all the items you want to try on have been arranged and laid out for you in the fitting room, a shopper gets a text alert.

In the fitting room, another mirror awaits that too doubles up as touchscreen. When you are fitting an outfit, a shopper can adjust the lighting to see how the outfit would look in different settings. The wind test does not seem to exist unfortunately. If a white dress you thought looked great on you but once you change the light settings looked horrible or it does not fit you right, changing to another colour is simple. Swipe on the touchscreen, and tap a new one with all the specifications you want. The item will be brought to the fitting room for you. When an outfit passes the beauty test under all the light settings then you can pay with a PayPal account.

The fitting room also turns into your personal stylist by suggesting accessories that can go with your outfit. It does this by recognising the outfit by use of a RFID tags that are on the clothes. And all the choices you make, whether you buy the item or not, it is saved to your profile so that later you can easily view your profile and purchase the item.

Except for that eBay also tracks individual shoppers’ behaviour with cameras which already happens in stores anyway with all those cameras, the convenience here is that the store wants to know your style better instead of wanting to catch you out stealing its clothes.