Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2017 - 15

THE END OF DEAD
PRESIDENTS

Intel Free Press/Creative Commons

Future generations
will look back on
the paper bills and
scratch their heads.
Money-the tangible
form of it, that is-will
have no place in the
years ahead. Instead,
transactions will take
place with a tap and
swipe via the eWallet,
the digital version of
your banking information that lives on your

smart devices. Unlike
transactions via cash
or credit/debit cards,
payments (and refunds) made via the
eWallet are nearinstant, trackable
and, thanks to layers
and layers of digital
security, much safer.
All things considered,
it's the smartest move
forward. Now, if only
they could find a way
of involving a digital
Ben Franklin. -M.B.

But Emrich and Skwarek agree that such
examples hint at how AR will improve the
shopping experience, as it applies to both ecommerce and in-store. First and foremost,
AR will allow shoppers to get a multitude of
information about a product right away. You
could, say, hold your phone up to an item and
see everything-every spec, every review, every competitor- associated with it.
Second, with AR we're going to be able to
visualize our shopping items in our home like
never before. This concept is toyed with in the
Ikea app but will be much more refined. "You
could see a couch you're interested in buying
overlaid onto a grid of your apartment; twist
and turn it any number of directions to see
how it fits and compare color patterns to your
overall design aesthetic," says Emrich.
Third, AR will enable an engaged and fully
interactive at-home shopping experience that
will make today's sterile site browsing seem
laughably old fashioned. Shopping for a new
shirt? You could, say, view every shirt at every
store within a 10-mile radius of your home,
pull up certain colors and sizes, and virtually
"try on" ones in your size for a "you're-wearing-it" feeling.
Hell, you wouldn't even need to be at the
same place as other prospective buyers. Say
you're buying a tent. You and a camping buddy
who live 500 miles apart would be able to
crawl into a tent and "test" it out together.

"AUGMENTED REALITY WILL ENABLE AN ENGAGED AND
FULLY INTERACTIVE AT-HOME SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
THAT WILL MAKE TODAY'S STERILE SITE BROWSING
SEEM LAUGHABLY OLD FASHIONED."

SCREEN SHOT
Lego adds to the
shopping
experience with
in-store AR.

"What all this adds up to is that you're able to
see the object in a much different way, which
will help with conversion, help with reduction
of returns, and make the overall experience
of shopping online seem real," says Emrich.
In the future, retailers will not only need to
digitize their product inventory to make sure
everything is optimized for AR but also adjust

VIRTUALLY
THERE

Travel the planet
and never leave
your shop.
Augmented reality
will likely herald the
next big retail experience instead of virtual reality (VR) for one
main reason: With
AR, we can use what
we already have-
our phones. But that
doesn't mean VR
won't take a major
role in the coming
shift. On the con-

trary, VR technology
can transport. Want
to stand-up paddleboard in Thailand?
Explore the great pyramids? Coming right
up. However VR's
greatest asset could
be its ability to make
customers feel.
Take a recent VR
experience created
by Toms shoes.
Certain retail stores
had VR rigs set
up so customers
could strap one on
and feel as though
they were walking

their entire retail plan.
So what's the development we're all waiting for, the next breakthrough that will open
the AR floodgates? Right now, our devices are
limited both in terms of their display and camera. People are required to stare down at their
phone or tablet to view whatever virtuallyassisted world an app has conjured for them.
"Processing power and screen size will improve, but it won't become genre-shifting until
people can see the entire world around them,"
says Skwarek. "It has to be in a pair of glasses."
When that happens, the scene you see will be
forever shifted. And that will lead to the blank
white box of the future.
Currently, the Microsoft HoloLens, a wraparound pair of teched-out glasses that resembles a welder's mask, offers the closest thing to
an upfront AR experience. But it costs $1,000.
How long until those come down in price?
"Four to five years," says Skwarek. "After that?
Everything changes." O.R.
through an African
village with smiling children sitting
beside huts. These
children were wearing Toms shoes-a
direct result of the
company's one-forone philanthropy
program-which is
a very effective way
of showing someone their purchase
makes a difference
and presenting them
with the direct result
of it. Other examples
of VR abound: One
can walk around a

hotel before setting
foot in it to get a youare-there experience
before booking or
meet the workers
from the textile factory where a store's
wares are made to
ensure they're sustainably sourced.
The best examples
give you an up-closeand-personal experience while tugging
on your emotions.
And that's what the
virtual future of shopping is all about.
-M.B.

Winter 2017 / OUTDOOR RETAILER 15

Outdoor Retailer - Winter 2017

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