Intellifit has developed a body scanning booth, which measures 200 body measurements in 10 seconds. The Intellifit website, in partnership with several retailers, including Nordstrom, Gap and Levi’s, will compare your measurements with clothing dimensions for a guaranteed fit. Intellifit body scanning is free. There are only a handful of booth locations, but the Company is expanding. Click here for some videos.
The Adidas flagship store in Paris offers a very innovative computerized and interactive retail experience, where consumers can create perfect fitting, and fully customized shoes. Watch the video! [thanks, CH]
I once read that roasted coffee beans oxidize and become stale only seven days after roasting. Ground coffee oxidizes after only three days. So, bottom line is that most of us drink stale coffee, even if you use an airtight container. Meanwhile, green unroasted coffee beans stay fresh for up to a year. Home roasting is one solution for fresh coffee, but the conditions for optimal coffee roasting are extremely precise, and it’s easy to burn the coffee beans etc., and many are willing to sacrifice some taste for the convenience of store bought coffee.
Starbucks has done a good job of educating coffee consumers of the benefit of quality coffee, but the experience could certainly be improved. In the era of “you,” I believe there’s an opportunity to create a chain of Fire Roasted Coffee houses (the domain firecoffee.com was available at the time of this writing), where consumers can select among a variety of green coffee beans in canisters (so they could select Kona beans, or Columbian beans, or Kenyan beans, for example), and then select the type of fire roasting they want (ie french roasted, vanilla roasted, orange roasted etc.). During the roasting, consumers can watch the expert fire roasters, or meet with people, or read, or browse music or book selections. There could also be online ordering, so you can custom order your coffee from home and pick it up or have it delivered in time for optimal freshness and taste.
I love brick oven pizza, and believe a brick oven creates not only superior pizza, but also can dramatically improve the ambiance of a restaurant. A coffee house with a brick fire oven for coffee roasting would achieve a similar kind of experience, and also better tasting, fresher coffee to either consume at the shop or to take home.
[UPDATE: A variation of this, a more earth friendly approach: Solar roasted coffee]
Having managed the technology solution for jeans fit clinics at Gap, I know firsthand the importance of fit to an apparel consumer. An emerging niche of online companies aim to help consumers find perfect fitting apparel. One company, venture-backed Zafu.com, has analyzed the fit of hundreds of jeans from diverse brands on thousands of women, and when a consumer plugs in her particular measurements, and style and size preferences, the site predicts, with an alleged 94% accuracy, a perfect fit. The site links to third-party sites that carry the jeans.
[thanks, Gary, for the tip!]
Ralph Lauren has an interactive window display at their store in Manhattan. It’s even possible to purchase items via the window, which has a credit card reader and on-screen keyboard. Now “window shopping” has new meaning! [thanks, David Polinchock]
For a related interactive display retail concept, click here.
PrevYou has developed and patented a virtual/real retail mechanism, which allows real-time connections between consumers and their friends via mobile and other Internet connected devices. Two potential applications are: 1) consumers could use their mobile camera to upload images to a secure website which friends or family could access, and supply real-time feedback of the product in question. 2) Retail stores could build cameras into changing areas and a shopper could model her outfit for friends or family on a retail branded website.
Another interesting changing room concept is being developed by researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic Institute of Textiles and Clothing: “An intelligent Simulator for Cross-selling & Up-selling using Smart Fitting Room & Smart Dressing Mirror.” RFID technology communicates with a system that can mix and match and suggest clothing options, which would be displayed on an interactive screen. The changing room is utterly important for influencing consumer purchasing, and has enormous untapped potential to do so much more to encourage consumer spending. [via and cool business ideas and ilya vedrashko]
When I wrote about Moving Mannequins, I thought about all kinds of possibilities, including the idea of a mobile phone remote controlled lifelike, robotic mannequin.
In that vein, LocaModa has devloped an interactive digital mannequin application, which allows consumers to customize a model’s clothes displayed on a large screen using a cell phone as a remote control. LocaModa’s technology works with any phone and any network and does not require the user to download any software.
Other StreetSurfer applications previewed by LocaModa at the Digital Retailing Expo include interactive real estate, travel agent and branded interactive games.
[Thanks, Gizmag]
In an innovative convergence ecommerce play, New York-based Entertainment Media Works launched Star Style this week, which is helmed by former CBS President Jim Rosenfield. For years, companies have paid for product placement in television and movies, but it’s a marketing strategy that’s increasing in importance, as a result of ad-skipping technology, and Star Style aims to be a central place online where viewers can purchase things they discover via television or movies. American Idol and The Real World – Key West are among the first shows featured, so you can dress like your favorite American Idol, or buy a couch from the Real World, for example.
