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eBay wants to put interactive mirrors in dressing rooms

eBay wants to put interactive mirrors in dressing rooms

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The online retailer is infiltrating brick-and-mortar, using the favorite tool of evil queens everywhere

By Elizabeth Lopatto, a reporter who writes about tech, money, and human behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as science editor. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg.

Source Wired

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To reach the brick-and-mortar world, eBay is turning to interactive mirrors. Because shopping wasn't stressful enough before the mirrors started talking to you.

The mirrors are being modeled at the Rebecca Minkoff store. When a customer walks into a changing room, the screens light up with suggested accessories. Browsing can be accomplished the old-fashioned way, or by swiping touch screens.

eBay is following in the footsteps of other online retailers like Amazon, which is preparing to open a store in New York. Its technology is a slicker version of other attempts to make retail interactive. That's because customers get more information about a potential purchase in a showroom. "So physical retail, a showroom, I think will never go away," Steve Yankovich, eBay’s head of innovation and new ventures, told Wired.

The creep factor is, of course, huge. Not only will the store "recognize" users who have downloaded its app, there are also cameras for tracking individual shoppers' behavior. The clothes are fitted with RFID tags, so the mirrors automatically know what's in the room. Selected items can be sent directly to the checkout. And shoppers can attach everything they've tried on to a personal profile, to be saved for later.

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