Future of Shopping? World of Hi-Tech Customer Service

The way Blake Nordstrom sees it, fashion has always been about change -- "creating a reason for the customer to buy something new" -- and the next three decades will bring more of it.

The next 30 years of retailing will be all about the customer's interests. And it will be up to merchants to keep up with or anticipate their every desire, says Nordstrom, president of one of the country's oldest department stores and great-grandson of founder John W. Nordstrom.

"The easiest thing to say is, it will be different," says Nordstrom, 51, who directs 234 stores in 31 states and wears a name that has long been associated with superior customer service. "There still will be customers who desire fresh new product. What that product is, how we satisfy the customer, that's open ."

In many ways, this "different" world that Nordstrom foresees is already blossoming in stores across the USA, with technology as the driving force.

Think digital fitting rooms, where parametric technology simulates body type and gives shoppers a sense of how a garment might look or fit. Or 3-D printers that allow consumers to make products in their own homes. Even smartphone technology is being developed to let retailers mine a shopper's personal data to figure out their tastes and potential interests.

Stores will still have a presence, but mainly just to let customers have a sensory experience -- touching and feeling items they can purchase remotely and having them shipped, according to retail analysts.

Where customers shop, increasingly, won't matter. A person could shop from home, from a car or even on the subway, where digital displays carry a menu of ready-to-order goods.

Nordstrom says customers want to be "channel agnostic," shopping from whatever platform is most convenient for them at any given time.

Expect stores to be layered with technology in which augmented reality andvirtual fitting rooms may be just a mall trip away.

Intel has designed a mirror that shows shoppers how clothes look on them -- bypassing the inconvenience of a fitting room.

When the shopper of the future is ready to check out, a cellphone will do.

"The cash registers of today (won't) exist anymore," Nordstrom says. "We see the future of point-of-sale as completely mobile ."

But don't expect stores filled with touch-screens and robots rather than hangers and sales associates. Though one day the ideal shopping experience might not involve human contact , Nordstrom says, "we're not there yet."

Source: Newsfactor (http://goo.gl/rqoOj)