Rebecca Minkoff and eBay unveil the future of retailing: 'Connected Store'

Luxury label Rebecca Minkoff has teamed up with eBay to launch its first 'Connected' store, in Soho, New York City, which is said to usher in the future of retail shopping.

The new store aims to offer an innovative in-store experience, whilst blurring the boundaries between online and offline shopping using new technologies to provide consumers with the ultimate shopping experience of the future.

One of the stores main features is the 'connected wall', which is a mirrored touch-screen that allows shoppers to browse through Rebecca Minkoff latest online content, collections and videos. Visitors are able to use the Rebecca Minkhoff iOS apps to learn more about the store's shopping options, which can be built around personal profiles. Shoppers can also view the full stock of product assortment available in store, select items to try on that will be sent to a fitting room and even use it to order drinks.

“How do you most effectively use physical space to let people discover products?” said Steve Yankovich, Head of Innovation and New Ventures at eBay Inc. “Our retail innovation team is building answers to that question by putting new concepts in front of customers. These will lead to big, big changes in retail."

“There are less and less mannequins you’ve seen in stores”, Yankovich added. “Displays, video and connected touch walls can make seeing what products look like in actual use much more engaging and true to life. Many surfaces and spaces in stores aren’t used efficiently. There are opportunities to help consumers have much more engaging shopping experiences.”

The fitting rooms contain mirrors which act as an interactive surface as well that lets shoppers control the lighting in the fitting room, ask the stylist for more sizes or proceed to check out. Using RFID technology the 'connected wall' is able to recognise all items in the room and suggest other sizes and colors available.

“If you bring five things into a dressing room and they don’t work, you might be tempted to leave a store,” Yankovich noted. “But what if you could determine the availability of different colours and sizes and request them from associates while still in the dressing room? The Connected Store’s fitting rooms will make that possible through smart surfaces that can even suggest entire outfits to try.”

The smart mirrored panel let consumers see which items they have tried on in the past or purchased and lets stylists make future recommendations based on previous styles, once linked to the Rebecca Minkoff iOS smartphone app.

“Can we turn a store into your store?” added Yankovich. “eBay is building shopping experiences where consumers can notify a store that they are coming and the associates can have personalised choices available near a smart dressing room before they even arrive. These white glove experiences are going to entirely shift consumer experiences.”