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Want to know which pair of sunglasses best suits your facial features? Or maybe you need help in choosing a cocktail dress for your upcoming office party? Just stand in front of the mirror—the digital mirror, that is.
Australia’s Yeahpoint technology development firm has come up with one special mirror that will make such purchase decisions a little easier. Its digital MiMirror allows shoppers to opt in to snap and record up to six pictures of themselves with whichever merchandise they’re thinking of buying, and then see the various style options at once on the MiMirror screen. If they’re still not sure which style to pick, they can use the MiMirror to e-mail the pictures to their friends or post them on social media sites, including Facebook. So, all of a sudden, having customers browsing through the store isn’t so bad for a retailer because the supporting technology was created to actually move shoppers further along the purchasing process, with the endorsement of the people they trust most, right at the point of sale.
“MiMirror can be purchased ‘off the shelf’ for integration into almost any retail environment. Depending on the brand, there are a huge array of configurations, social integration and marketing options that can be added to the device to add further value to both the retailer and the consumer,” explained CEO John Anderson.
“These can be anything from visual stylistic changes right through to additional hardware installations. For example, we can implement an audience measurement tool to capture the demographics of the people using MiMirror, or run competitions using MiMirror or tailor advertising content to suit as well as record [consumers’] emotional reactions. This can be incredibly valuable information for a retail company and [the system] uses an opt-in methodology to adhere to privacy laws.”
Yeahpoint debuted its creation last month at the Digital Signage World Exhibition in Sydney. It also had a couple of other innovations to unveil: facial recognition technology for supermarkets, which accurately matches customers to their orders; and audience measurement scanning, which allows retailers to deliver real-time content to suit consumers.
“We have just completed our first [MiMirror] installation in Africa and just finalized contracts for implementation in Singapore, and there is serious interest from major fashion retailers in Australia,” Anderson said.
“We have no doubt that you will begin to see MiMirror in some of the world’s major retail chains, especially those in the U.S., before the end of 2011.”
Exactly which retailers have come on board has yet to be announced, but we do know which financial commitment it will entail. According to Anderson, MiMirror is based on Yeahpoint’s yeahWARE CORE9 platform, which allows it to be seamlessly integrated with other in-store kiosks and mobile applications. The retailer pays for the hardware and an annual software subscription of under $1000.
It might be some time before the MiMirror becomes a household name in your market. Until then, shoppers will just have to make their purchase decisions the “old-fashioned” way, by snapping pictures on their smart phones one at a time and sending them to partners and friends via e-mail and social media.
The Trendz Twist
While the MiMirror was designed for use inside a retail store, it could also serve as a special event highlight. Just picture children trying on elf hats in front of a MiMirror and taking pictures while they wait to see Santa.
Aug.
2011
2011
Posted in Digital Marketing
