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How Smart Mirror Technology Increases Smiles and Sales

This post has been edited since it originally appeared on VMSD.com

As online retailers continue to grow, brick and mortar clothing stores have been struggling to find ways to remain competitive against juggernauts like Amazon and eBay. These massive online retailers have access to seemingly limitless inventories of styles and colors that customers can browse at the click of a button. And, they don’t have to worry about some of the same costs such as staffing and theft. So how are top tier retail clothing stores supposed to entice shoppers to visit their stores and get the sales they need to stay in – and grow – their businesses?

The newest advance set to help reframe the retail experience is called the smart mirror.

While there are several competing models being tested across the country, a standard smart mirror functions as a combination of a mirror and video camera. The smart mirror will snap a video of a customer in an outfit and then display it as they try on different combinations letting them quickly compare looks. This lets customers decide which outfit they like best, and some smart mirrors can even let customers see how they would look in a different outfit without ever undressing.
Read More »How Smart Mirror Technology Increases Smiles and Sales

Fitting Room Occupancy Indicators

Why You Need to Know if that Fitting Room is Occupied

There are many devices used in the world today that you don’t appreciate until you do without. Take occupancy lights, for example. Anybody who has ever used a public restroom understands that it’s difficult to know what’s going on behind a closed door. Peeking under doors or knocking feels a bit creepy, but nobody likes waiting unnecessarily.

Who knew such a complex social situation could be solved by something as simple as a lightbulb that’s triggered by the locking of a door?

In fact, retailers should give some serious consideration to the idea of occupancy indicators for fitting rooms. It’s crucial to know if a fitting room is occupied, and here are a few reasons why.

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How to Create Stellar Customer Experiences in the Fitting Room

We’re on a mission to help you understand how to make fitting rooms better. This is the third of a three-part series intended to provide the basics of a great fitting room experience. This post focuses on creating consistently stellar customer experiences in the fitting room.

You can have fitting rooms that are comfortable, well-lit and perfectly laid out to make customers feel at home. You can have a store that subtly but assuredly directs customers to the fitting rooms each and every time they shop. You can do everything right, and still have trouble getting customers to try stuff on.

So what is the problem? It could be your staff. Not a problem with the people working in your stores, per se, but with their training.

The most engaged employees are the ones that feel valued, appreciated, and empowered. They’re also part of a team that works together to ensure the best possible customer experience.

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Why You Need a Fitting Room Process – It’s the Star of the Show!

We’re on a mission to help you understand how to make fitting rooms better. This is the second of a three-part series intended to provide the basics of a great fitting room experience. This post focuses on the need for a defined fitting room process.

For customers, shopping for apparel should be a lot like eating a fine meal. The friendly greeting at the entrance is like a cocktail before dinner. A good layout to the sales floor is like an appetizer. To the surprise of many, the main course is actually the fitting room. It’s the star of the meal…er, shopping experience. A pleasant experience at the cashwrap is the dessert, or sherry after dinner if that’s what floats your boat.

Sure, the whole experience is important, but it’s the main course, or, in this case, the fitting room, that’s going to leave a lasting impression. Ultimately, in the retail transaction process, the fitting room is the moment where a go/no-go decision on a purchase is made.

With that in mind, it becomes clear that sales associate training and any adjustments to the store layout should be designed to direct customers to the fitting room.

Read More »Why You Need a Fitting Room Process – It’s the Star of the Show!

How to Make a Fitting Room Presentable

We’re on a mission to help you understand how to make fitting rooms better. This is the first of a three-part series intended to provide the basics of a great fitting room experience. The initial focus is on ensuring fitting rooms are presentable.

If you have been following along with us for a little while, you’re probably starting to come around to the idea that fitting rooms are important. Really important. Because this tiny room is where the customer makes their buying decision, it’s really one of the most critical elements to retail success.

And yet the fitting room, where the success or failure of the retail transaction hangs precariously in the balance, is often among the most neglected areas of the store. Think about it:

Is there another area of the store that’s so completely void of technology, either to support the fitting room process or to collect invaluable consumer data?

Once you accept that the current approach to the fitting room experience is, in most cases, completely broken, you can start doing something to address it.

Read More »How to Make a Fitting Room Presentable

Impact of Fitting Room Call Buttons

Will Customer Satisfaction Increase Significantly From Installing Call Buttons?

It’s good to be skeptical when reading about sales technology on the internet. For example, you may be wondering if there is any way to know if the push of a call button can affect sales. You may also wonder how we can measure the relationship between the presence of fitting room call buttons and increased sales.

As it turns out, there are many ways to measure the effectiveness of call buttons on the bottom line. Some are pretty sophisticated and require an upfront investment, but we’ll get to those in a little while. First, let’s have a look at ways to measure the “quick wins” that can come with the addition of this relatively straightforward technology to fitting rooms.

Read More »Will Customer Satisfaction Increase Significantly From Installing Call Buttons?

fitting room who and what mystery resolved

The “Who” and “What” Fitting Room Mystery Solved

As a retail apparel company, your list of priorities needs to stay consistent from day-to-day.

  • You need to promote your products effectively so you can increase in-store traffic.
  • You need to ensure your sales associates practice exceptional customer service on the sales floor to improve the customer experience.
  • And, above all, you need to do whatever is necessary to drive shoppers to the fitting room in your store.

Read More »The “Who” and “What” Fitting Room Mystery Solved

How to Avoid the Dreaded Re-dress

It’s no secret that the fitting room is the single most important area of any successful retail apparel business. Customers can visit your website, follow you on social media platforms and browse your stores all day long, but unless they make routine visits to your fitting room to try on clothes, they will never contribute significantly to the revenue of your company.

Over the years our company has worked extremely hard to create technology that drives in-store traffic for retailers, gets customers off the sales floor and into the fitting room, tracks important fitting room metrics, and perhaps most importantly—improves the fitting room experience of each and every customer.

We’ve used various analytic tools to help retailers better manage the fitting room experience of their customers, but one of the most effective ways we’ve found is through the installation of fitting room call buttons.

Read More »How to Avoid the Dreaded Re-dress

How to Avoid Designing a Dressing Room That Makes People Look Fat

As the owner or operator of a clothing retail store, the moment where a customer heads off to the fitting room with a selection of different items is an incredibly promising one. If a person likes a piece of clothing enough to go try it on, that means they are very seriously considering a purchase. However, it also means that what happens in the fitting room can make or break a sale for your store, and too often, what happens in the fitting room isn’t something the customer likes.

I’m talking about the way that a fitting room—between lighting, room color, room size, and mirror quality—can make a huge difference in how a person looks in the garments they are trying on. A recent Buzzfeed article and photo essay called “Here Is What The Same Person Looks Like In Dressing Rooms For 20 Different Stores” showed, with fascinating photographic detail, just how different a person wearing the same clothes can look under the conditions of various different retail store dressing rooms. The piece is a must-read for any clothing retail store owner.

Read More »How to Avoid Designing a Dressing Room That Makes People Look Fat