Today, many retail stores serve as a place for consumers to look at and test products before they go home and order the same products online. This Christmas, however, Ebay is planning to bring the best of both worlds together by partnering with three retailers in San Francisco to launch a series of ‘digital storefronts’.
This new concept could revolutionize shopping by providing huge touchscreen store windows of which consumers can peruse through a retailer’s catalog of products as if they were using a computer. Products are ordered by simply hitting the order button on the ‘connected glass’ points in the mall and an order link is then sent to the user’s mobile phone.
The main idea behind the digital storefront concept is that retailers do not have to invest in a physical location in order to participate or be featured in heavy traffic areas. In fact, Sony is the only retailer of the three Ebay teamed up with that has a physical location in the West San Francisco Centre.
The connected glass does not require square footage retail space and can go up virtually anywhere, saving time, money, and resources. Look for these unique digital stores to become more and more popular among train stations, airports, and malls in the future.
