The store in 2040: wearables, entry fee and custom environments for clothes

How will future stores be like. This conundrum has led the main role in all fashion business talks and reports for several years. Flagships or microstores? Experience or convenience? At online service or the other way around? According to the consultant Euromonitor, the future of sales depends on adapting each purchase to the client and the kind of product, and on facilitating the process leaning on new technologies such as virtual reality or wearables.

In its report Commerce 2040: Revolutionary Tech Will Boost Consumer

Engagement.

 Euromonitor draws a not-so-distant future where people will have to pay to enter a store, wearables will guide clients once inside and there will be specific areas to try on each sort of product in the environment in which it will be used.

The report claims that stores will become experience centres and that companies could charge admission fees. These facilities will be built so consumers can touch and see the product, whereas those clients who come to pick up an online order will have an independent entrance.

Companies will ultimately adapt stores to each client

Once inside the stores, wearables, devices that go incorporated in clothing items, and smart speakers, will become the consumer’s guide through the establishment. The products that clients desire will be automatically added to a virtual shopping basket, whilst robots will be used for customer service, inventory and logistics activities. The payment of each article will also be done automatically when leaving the store.

On the other hand, consumption in physical stores will reduce in a great extent, and clients will only go there to try on products, according to the report. Virtual reality, for its part, will gain popularity among consumers and will be of use to see how the product looks like through a screen.

Furthermore, in the next few years, clients will be able to try on products in the context that they are destined to be used on. For instance, a company that offers coats will give consumers the opportunity to try on the clothing item in a cold area adapted inside the store or soccer shoes in a space that is similar to grass.