Future of Retail

10 In-store Innovations – Emerging Countries

Scenarios: Future of Entertainment

Scenario 1

Rewalliance Augmented Reality Trial Rooms

Tanya is a shopaholic! She loves to explore new outfits and generally has a great collection for each occasion. She is a freelance writer for many fashion houses and regularly blogs about her experiences while shopping. Technology in retail has always been a subject of interest to her and she regularly blogs about that. While browsing the Internet one spring morning, she learns about the launch of the new summer collection by her preferred brand MANGO. The store is also set to launch a new trial room experience using Augmented Reality called “Rewalliance.” All set to shop, she invites her buddies to go shopping with her in the evening to experience this new technology!

Tanya and her friends enter the shop, excited to discover more about the new technology in retail shopping. The central dias displays the summer collection and behind it is the Rewalliance Trail Room. Tanya and 2 of her friends pick up party wear outfits as they have to attend a party in Goa in a few weeks and head for the Rewalliance Trial Room.

Tanya finds herself in the middle of a room filled with screens and a very futuristic projector on top. She looks into the screen and the facial recognition software scans her face and creates a 3D reality image in front of her with the dress she chose. The image flaunts the stunning black dress in front of her… Tanya gets a real good look at her virtual self.

She then notices icons on the screen and various settings and goes ahead to press the “Party Theme” option.

The settings in the room change, suddenly the lights go off and come on again! She finds herself in the middle of a party, wearing the stunning black dress that she is holding in her hand and dancing away! Thrilled with the experience, Tanya starts grooving to the music and finds herself dancing in the Rewalliance room! Suddenly the music stops and the image of her virtual self again stands in front of her…turns out that the simulation was only for a few minutes to give the user a feel of the setting in which they plan to wear the outfit. She heads out of the room and finds her 2 pals waiting for her. “That was fun; let’s try another outfit,” and off go the girls into the Rewalliance room with another outfit…

Scenario 2

Rewalliance Experience on the Move

Traditional shopping has undergone a massive change in year 2025. Physical spaces today are both unaffordable and impractical with the whole world shopping online. Stores today are replaced with photographs of clothes on the walls of the streets with QR codes, one merely has to scan code with a smart phone to enable online shopping on the go. “Easy way to shop on the go, wherever you are” is the motto of most of the apparel retail stores today. In this technologically enabled world, Tanya, a shopaholic heads out to meet her friends. Having shopped just the previous day, she is avoiding those pictures on the street walls showing the best summer collection of the season. But she is tempted to shop as she sees a huge board “Shopping experience on the move, download our application here and have the shopping experience of your life!”

Tanya heads over to the board which has a QR code at the side called “Rewalliance Application.” She scans the QR code, downloads the application and then heads to meet 2 of her friends for a coffee down the street. She opens the application and it offers a 3-step procedure that explains how to use it 1. Scan an image of the apparel 2. Switch on camera 3. Point the camera at a person in front of you and click “load apparel” She does as instructed in steps 1 & 2.

Tanya reaches the coffee shop and sees her 2 friends waiting for her. She walks up to them and stops at a distance of 10 meters from them. “Let’s try this,” she says and clicks “Load Apparel.”

To her surprise, the camera image in front of her changes to an augmented reality image and she sees her 2 friends wearing the dresses she scanned on the way! “Wow cool!” Delighted with the application, she shows it to her friends and asks them to point the camera at her so that they can see how she looks in the dress. Having gone through a great experience she ends up purchasing 3 dresses—one for each of them. She immediately gets a message: “The order will be delivered to each of your residences; we have your addresses thanks to our smart Geo Location Finder. Have a nice day!”

She reaches home after a few hours and her dress has arrived right at her doorstep!

Scenario 3

The Grand Library

Hariprasad is an avid reader. He loves to read the latest bestsellers in fiction, especially mystery novels. He likes reading his books on his e-reader or on his phone while on the move. He is also very active on social networking book clubs, where he posts his experiences while reading books and reviews as well. One of the social book clubs recommended a unique new experience called “The Grand Library.” The idea was to revive the old library experience with a twist! Hariprasad had never been to a library but had heard a lot about them from his parents. So, out of curiosity and a sense of excitement, he decided to head for the first physical library visit in his life!

Hariprasad enters the library and heads towards the book shelves that have physical copies of books – he wonders that they still exist.

He picks up a book that he has been wanting to buy as he had heard very good reviews about it. And as soon as he turns the page, he feels a gust of cold wind. He turns around to see that he is standing in the midst of a jungle and there is a dead body with a knife on the ground. He is totally taken aback!! The virtual reality 3-D projections and touchable holograms are state-of-the-art installations in the library!

Hariprasad turns the book around in his hands to read what the book is about. On the back of the book is the author’s image and he actually hears him say, “Hello Hariprasad, greetings for the day!”

When Hariprasad glances up, he sees Amish the author standing in front of him, saying: “I am Amish and it brings me great pleasure to introduce my new book Ramayana 3392 AD.”

Hariprasad shakes hands with Amish and asks him more about the book. Amish takes Hariprasad through some interesting twists and turns of the book and also introduces some key characters of the novel.

The characters interact with Hariprasad. They introduce themselves and Hariprasad experiences some epic scenes from the novel.

Hariprasad shuts the book and thanks Amish. He keeps the book back on the shelf.

He goes to the information counter where a VR (virtual reality) assistant transfers an e-copy of the book to him and gives him more details on the subscription services for this library.

Hariprasad will now read the book on the move on his phone or e-reader and come here to experience the plots of the story. He immediately recommends the library as a must-visit for every book lover and those who love experiential living!

Scenario 4

Alexia is an avid reader and enjoys reading fiction books involving spies and murder mysteries. She is fond of traveling and loves to read on the go on her tablet. She is also a part of a group called “Alternate Book Endings” where they discuss newer and different endings than the one proposed by the author. On such occasion, while sharing her alternate ending, she learns of a new technology called “Simulation Room.” This offers the reader the experience to live the characters of the book. Curious about the technology, she clicks for more information and discovers that a local book store she used to frequent is displaying this technology and giving out free demos. She heads over to the book store.

Alexia enters the book store and is amazed to see the changes that have taken place in the book store since his last visit 10 years ago. She heads over to the shelf housing fiction books and notices a room behind it. This is the “The Simulation Room,” which she had read about just a while back.

She finds herself in the middle of a dark room with a projector arrangement and a shelf full of books kept beside the projector. The book shelf too is very unique—it has a wire connecting it to the projector, a screen and a state-of-the-art sound system.

Alexia sits in the chair and the screen reads: “Welcome to The Simulation Room. Today’s book is 24 Hours – the latest novel by Lee Child.”

She finds herself sitting next to a virtual projection of Lee. She is shocked to see him and jumps up from her seat. “Relax,” says Lee, “Please join me. This is a new format of books known as simulation books and they come ready with all this equipment. Let me introduce you to my latest book 24 Hours..”

Alexia sits back in the chair, picks up the book and turns over to the page marked in the book. As she reads the lines in the book, a projection comes up on the screen and her pulse starts racing…she suddenly experiences herself as Agent Jack entering a dimly-lit building to gather some evidence to solve the mystery. Before she reaches the door, she shoots 2 armed guards in front of the building and then runs towards the building. She opens the door and the movie comes to a stop.

Feeling thrilled with the technology, Alexia heads over to the counter to find herself in the virtual presence of Lee Child again!

Virtual Lee then explains that Alexia can either come to the Simulation Room and read the complete book at a charge or she can buy the equipment as a one-time investment. This would include the book rack and projector and she could plug it to his personal sound system at her house. If she purchases the equipment, she gets 3 books free, one of them being his latest one 24 Hours.

Delighted by the offer, Alexia buys the equipment and sets it up at her place. She then calls for a meeting of his Alternate Book Endings group to brag about his latest purchase!

Endless Opportunities

World as a Shopping Interface