360 DEGREES Weblog

Online retailing leader Amazon is to make a compelling offer this coming Saturday – use their smartphone app to compare prices, and they’ll effectively pay you $5 to walk out of the store. It is an historic move in the evolution of retail sales. As smart phone penetration heads for ubiquity, the price comparison app might go mainstream quite quickly from here. For the customer, it means getting accurate comparison information before a purchase. For the shopping app provider it means an opportunity to make a bid on a customer’s patronage at the time- and point-of-sale, inside a competitor’s bricks and mortar, at the same time as creating a marketing intelligence tool par excellence. A bold move indeed.

Ever wonder where those Cybermonday Deals from Amazon.com get pulled, packed, and then shipped out? Well, wonder no more, as we give you a rare look inside one of the company’s largest distribution centers in Swansea, Wales. Let’s just say you’ll see an endless amount of boxes and products to go with them.

Thanks Techeblog

It’s one of the most popular online t-shirt stores, but just in time for the start of the holiday shopping rush Threadless is testing a small number of vending machines throughout its hometown of Chicago.

The company, known for its hip, pop-culture inspired designs, teamed up with Coinstar to create the automated t-shirt kiosks which also sell hoodies, totes, water bottles and infant onesies. Now installed in four pilot locations including shopping malls and grocery stores, the selection of tees offered at the machines is of course limited, at least compared to the expansive variety available on their site, but customers will still have their choice of sizes ranging from small to extra-large.

For the time being Threadless has no plans to roll out similar kiosks across the country, most likely because they’d need to first have the infrastructure in place to keep them stocked. But they seem like a good way to familiarize people who don’t shop online with the brand, even if their designs really only appeal to a market that’s already internet savvy. If they’re successul, maybe other online stores will also venture into this brave new world of selling their goods, in person, to the consumer.

Thanks Gizmodo

Oh, man. Bricks’n’mortar retailer are going to love this. Amazon has launched Flow, an app which not only scans a product’s bar code, but can even identify items just by pointing your camera at them.

It then uses augmented reality to overlay pricing, reviews and availability (at Amazon, of course), and even gives you a “buy now” button.

The app doesn’t just work with books and movies. It uses “continuous scan” tech from Amazon-owned A9 to recognize pretty much anything that comes in a package. Thus it will happily ID a box of cereal or a video game (like you buy those in boxes anymore anyway).

This pretty much destroys any reason not to use Amazon, especially when coupled with Prime’s next-day delivery. Imagine you’re in a store checking something out. It’s too big to carry home, or you just don’t want to carry a package with you when you go out to dinner later. Just point, click and the exact same item shows up on your doorstep the next morning. And probably tax-free.

Flow is currently available in the U.S, and works with the iPhone.

Shopping 2.0: It’s no surprise that “interactive hangers” [scroll down for an explanation in English] are first introduced in Japan, a country obsessed with service, shopping, fashion and technology. Vanquish, the shop in question, is located in a department store in central Tokyo called 109MEN’S.

The way it works is pretty simple: every time a shopper picks up a hanger, a computer screen above the item displays relevant pictures and videos, for example showing how a T-shirt looks when worn or other clothes that would fit the item chosen.

When it comes to shopping, the opulent class goes for a few selected brands to choose its expensive items of liking from. One such brand is Louis Vuitton which is one-stop destination for the rich shopaholics. Now, the French fashion house has inaugurated its latest flagship store in Singapore. This store is not like any other store in a shopping mall, but is in the form of an island at the Marina Bay Sands.
Louis Vuitton Island Maison had a grand opening with a red carpet event. Celebrities from across the world were invited for this. This LV store is a one-of-a-kind store as it sits amid the Marina Bay Sands with breathtaking landscape. The interior of the Louis Vuitton Island Maison is nautical-inspired which is completely designed by globally admired architect Peter Marino. Apart from being a shopping spot, customers can also indulge in the art and cultural elements in the retail space. The Maison is made of crystal pavilion that looks amazing at night with special lighting and natural reflection of water.

Louis Vuitton has 459 stores in 63 countries and Louis Vuitton Island Maison is the 1st Maison in Southeast Asia

Regular readers are well-acquainted with the many creative uses of the shipping container, including pop-up health clinics, hotel rooms and nightclubs. The latest spotting? Boxpark — a pop-up shopping mall planned for launch this summer that’s created out of no fewer than 60 shipping crates.

Slated to appear in London’s Shoreditch area this August, Boxpark will house more than 50 small stores in a two-story structure constructed on Bishopsgate Goods Yard, a former railway site that’s been unused for more than 40 years. The site isn’t scheduled for development for several years still, so Boxpark’s temporary solution works well for all parties. Conceived by Roger Wade — creator of the Boxfresh brand as well as fashion brand consultancy Brands Inc. — in partnership with real estate developers Hammerson and Ballymore, Boxpark will focus on small, independent brands that are hand-selected and offered space by invitation only. The result will be a mix of international fashion, arts and lifestyle brands along with galleries and cafés.

The tablet — designed to be stationed on a restaurant table — has four key functions: to serve as a menu, provide games, offer payment options, and enable feedback. To begin, diners enter key details about their table, such as how many people will be eating. They may then view the menu, which can be browsed by categories such as starters, mains and desserts, and features full color images of the meals available. E la Carte claim that by using images to advertise the dishes, diners can be upsold by as much as ten percent per bill. Once the order has been placed from the tablet, it is automatically printed out in the kitchen, along with any notes the diners have made specifying amendments they would like to be made — such as “no mayonnaise”, for example.

Whilst the kitchen prepares the meals, the diners can then play games on the tablet, including trivia quizzes which can offer discounts off courses as prizes. The tablet can also be loaded with information on the local area, events taking place locally that evening, and information on the restaurant itself. Once the meals have been consumed, diners can then complete payment using the tablet’s built in card reader and tip calculator. Lastly, before leaving, it is possible for feedback to be submitted using the tablet. If diners are unhappy with the service they have received, the restaurant manager will automatically receive a text, and can respond by visiting the table of the disgruntled diners before they leave.

The tablets are not — according to the E la Carte website — designed to replace human waiting staff, but rather compliment a pre-existing service. With the possibility of adding in allergy advice and nutritional information in the future, how long will it be before these are a “must have” for those involved in the catering industry?

Thanks Springwise

Online shoe stores like Zappos are vastly superior to their brick-and-mortar counterparts when it comes to selection, but my shoe size varies from brand to brand and style to style, so actually trying a pair on is an important part of my decision process. So while I won’t deny that adidas’ new adiVERSE Virtual Footwear Wall is an impressive piece of technology, and is probably incredibly fun to play with, I can’t help but feel it would be out of place in a physical shoe store.

The adiVERSE is essentially a massive touch-screen interface that allows shoppers to peruse virtual versions of the shoes in adidas’ current lineup. And because they’re all rendered in 3D in real-time, they can be rotated, zoomed and thoroughly examined in the virtual space. And if you find a pair you really like, you can even order them via a tablet-based checkout or from the traditional cash desk where they’ll be delivered to your home. So basically it’s like a far more interactive experience than shopping for shoes from your browser, except that you have to leave the comfort of your living room couch to do it.

Kirk Originals eyewear company opened its London flagship store on Conduit Street in the West End this week.

London-based Campaign designed the pared-down, dramatic retail environment of the 66 square-meter boutique.

The black-and-white color palette, only one eyewear wall with 187 “heads” for frames, and practically no furnishings ensure that customers will focus on the eyewear, not the trappings. Eye examinations and fitting take place in the basement, away from the main display space. Large graphics of winking eyes in the window speak the same, clear language leaving no doubt about what they sell.

Established more than two decades ago, Kirk Originals is still run by Jason and Karen Kirk from their home near Bordeaux, France. Kirk Originals are available in more than 40 countries.

Thanks Coolhunter