Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

That mirror exists today, and will make its way into stores in time for this year’s holiday shopping season.

Why am I writing about a ‘customer-focused’ mirror? Well, besides the fact that it’s totally cool and brings with it a huge ‘wow’ factor, it is designed to enhance the customer experience—and if you know me at all, you know that I’m all about everything customer service.

The product is called magicmirror, created by thebigspace in partnership with Infosys, and Avery Dennison, as a means for better connecting with customers while they’re in the store. “It offers ‘positive intervention’ during the shopping experience,” Infosys principal Devon Ferreira told me while demonstrating its functionality. “Often a retailers’ first interaction with a customer is at checkout, which is too late.”

Magicmirror may well enhance the shopping experience for the customer (I’m hoping my favorite stores adopt it…), but it’s designed to improve the shopping experience for the retailer, as well. The mirror uses RFID technology to gather data on customers’ shopping behavior before the sale is made. “Knowing what customers didn’t buy is as important as know what they did buy,” Ferreira said.

The mirror can also gather “intention” data. If, for example, a shopper holds a fleece pullover up to the mirror, the mirror asks how he will use the item, for hiking or just hanging out. Not only does that allow the mirror to make more relevant recommendations for related items, but it also gives the retailer valuable information on how customers are using or intend to use its products. “It’s a pervasive technology designed in such a way that consumers won’t even realize they’re using ‘technology,’” Ferreira said. “It’s designed to be a natural extension of the shopping experience.”

The magicmirror is also designed to “enable the brand experience in the store,” Ferreira said, by talking to customers when they’re listening. “The power today is with consumers,” who increasingly ignore the glut of ads coming at them, he said. The mirror’s touch screen can display all types of content, from item descriptions and related-product suggestions to full audio and video advertisements.

What other magic can the mirror do beside describe an item in full detail and make recommendations for related products? It can send messages to a sales associate’s PDA—any associate or a specific person, depending on how the retailer wants to set up the system; it can send requests from the dressing room for a new size and show content while the shopper is waiting for the requested item; it can capture trends in what people are trying on but not buying, as well as capture data on how many shoppers are purchasing recommended products; and it can ‘see’ the total number of items brought into a dressing room, which can help with loss prevention. A retailer could even use the mirror to help train associates on new products, creating a consistency in knowledge and presentation across its stores.

The mirror is designed to work as well in the dressing room as on the display floor. Another model, more like a table top, is designed for shoes or consumer electronic products. The version designed for shoes can provide such information as what sizes are in stock, related styles, alternate colors; the version for electronics can display such information as similar models and related items (do you need a tripod and carrying case to go with that camera?).

“We see magicmirror as a differentiator for retailers looking for ways to help their customers bring brands to life,” Ferreira explained.

And that’s no fairy tale.