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The effects of AI and technology on the retail industry are far reaching and the industry is embracing the trend – a trend here to stay – by becoming increasingly tech-savvy as a means to keep up with the consumers’ growing demand for more convenient, engaging and frictionless ways to shop.

Bricks-and-mortar stores are adopting and exploring innovative technology to improve areas such as payment and check-out solutions, data analytics and customer-centric marketing.

In its report Seeing is believing, PwC states that Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have the potential to deliver a £ 1.4 trillion boost to the global economy by 2030.

The report goes on to highlight that the use of VR and AR in the retail and consumer sector will provide a £ 184.2 billion boost to global GDP by 2030. Retailers will be able to create new customer experiences, from virtual fitting rooms for fashion stores, to AR applications that let people test how furniture would look in their home before they buy.

Jeremy Dalton, Head of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, PwC UK says, “Businesses, the economy and society are at a crucial stage right now when it comes to the adoption of VR and AR. The technology and hardware are finally coming of age and VR and AR have the potential to provide a significant boost to the global economy, and improve the way organisations operate, make processes faster and more effective, educate people more effectively and create incredible user experiences.”

VR and AR have the potential to add US $ 1.5 trillion to the global economy by 2030 – PwC Seeing is believing report

The technologies will also help retailers better understand buyer behaviour through advanced consumer research. In this feature, we highlight five key tech-led solutions set to become big in the future as they enhance the fashion retail sector.

The tags of the future show and depict a lot more than just the price and size of a garment. New smart tags are becoming increasingly popular in the fashion and retail industry to help customers and retailers alike.

New age RFID tags allow brands to accurately and quickly count inventory, alongside facilitating a broad range of other services, such as instant in-store checking of product availability, discrete security systems, and also, smart fitting rooms.

These tags carry an RFID chip which basically acts as a licence plate for an item.

For customers, smart tags enable instant access to a wealth of information about a particular brand or product. And we see a growing trend of consumers all across the globe already asking for QR codes or NFC tags. This trend has in most part been accelerated by the pandemic, with the fashion industry moving towards adopting greater sustainability and traceability processes.

New age RFID tags allow brands to accurately and quickly count inventory, alongside facilitating a broad range of other services, such as instant in-store checking of product availability, discrete security systems, and also, smart fitting rooms.

NFC tags (which require the tap of a phone to access information) and QR codes (which require to be scanned by a camera) can both be used to show the history of a garment, its sustainability credentials, and provide information and facilitate circular services such as authentication, repair and resale. However, while NFC tags are small chips made using metal, QR codes feature simply a small print, often created using ink, so various companies view QR codes as a more sustainable option when it comes to choosing smart tags for products.

The Jetsons’ life is not too far from reach, especially now when companies are dabbling with and are open to exploring technologies that involve the use of automated robots that can take over the costly and time-consuming job of counting inventory and give shop staff more time for other tasks, such as tending to shoppers.

One company working on such a robot is MetraLabs. The robotics solutions manufacturer has built a robot called Tory, which analyses inventory using RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology, that can be used in stores after hours, or even while shoppers are in store during the day.

The robot recognises and captures 99 per cent of all RFID-tagged articles, is 10 times faster than a manual inventory count and can run for up to 18 hours before needing a recharge.

Additionally, the robot can be equipped with a multimodal user interface with speech and touch input, allowing customers to ask where to find a particular product or department. Tory is currently used in hundreds of stores across Europe and Australia, including Decathlon, Kmart Australia and Adler Modemärkte.

Smart mirrors are becoming increasingly popular in fashion retail, streamlining the shopping process and merging the physical with the digital to allow consumers easier ways to compare, browse and style products without having to make multiple trips back and forth from the store floor to the changing room.

Digital signage company Scala’s changing rooms feature sensors that make use of RFID technology to recognise which products a customer is holding. The product is then pulled up on a screen on the mirror allowing shoppers to view similar products, browse other looks from the store and check availability – all without having to leave the changing room.

Shoppers can also take a short video of themselves wearing the product while doing a 360° turn so that they can see what the garment looks like on them from all angles and whilst in motion.

Amazon Fashion and H&M Group are just one of the many fashion companies which have introduced the concept of smart mirrors in their stores. H&M announced last month that it will start smart mirrors trialling in its Cos stores in the US.

Monitoring the behaviour of shoppers inside stores is extremely valuable for retailers. Knowing how customers move around the store, for which items, and for how long they stay, can help fashion companies maximise sales.

One company specialising in technology to do just that is Swiss tech company Xovis, which develops, produces and distributes 3D sensors and software. The Bern-based company’s sensors can be mounted to measure important KPIs, for example footfall, zone dwell time, customer journey and conversions per customer and/or square metre.

Using tracking technology, fashion retailers can more effectively rearrange their products to place the most popular items in high traffic areas and ensure customers see more of what they want to see, and less of what they don’t.

By knowing, for example, which order of items shoppers like to browse in stores, retailers can rearrange their products, or the layout of the store itself, to ensure the highest chance of purchases. Xovis told Fashion United that with one German partner, it was able to increase sales conversion by up to 15 per cent using its technology.

By making use of the universe of options and opportunities presented by the Metaverse, retail stores can offer customers better engagement and a 3D visual experience by effectively closing the ‘immersive experience’ gap.

Currently, popular online shopping platforms are unable to provide such an experience, and this results in customers opting for offline product try-outs followed by an online purchase (showrooming), or drop-offs.

The Metaverse presents customers with the opportunity to try out various products from the comfort of their homes while avoiding the exertion that shopping in physical stores could involve. Many brands that have embraced the metaverse concept have introduced their shoppers to a virtual shopping experience.

The Metaverse enables shoppers to venture around all the floors of the store, try on items and buy them – all without leaving their homes.

This enables shoppers to venture around all the floors of the store, try on items and buy them – all without leaving their homes. And this is already happening.

Retail clothing brands have launched their first virtual store that allows customers to shop in a 3D environment, whilst leading cosmetic brand retailers have also adopted AR and VR through a make-up app that uses facial recognition to allow customers to try on products remotely.

Businesses need to take initiative to capitalise on VR and AR.

From creating new customer experiences to speeding up product development and improving workplace safety, many existing and emerging uses of these technologies promise to drive growth from the current GDP contribution of £ 46.4 billion.

We conclude with Jeremy Dalton’s excerpt from PwC’s press release, “Organisations that may have struggled with seeing how VR and AR fit into their business, need only look at the multiple existing and emerging examples in the research. Now is the time for them to think about how these technologies can improve their performance or they risk being left behind.”

He further added, “Organisations need to look beyond the software development stage and focus on designing solution to solve a specific business issue – VR and AR can be used to speed up processes, improve safety, reduce costs or open up new revenue streams.”

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