The Digital Shopping street

I walked through one of the luxury shopping streets in Brussels the other day. It was a week day, rainy and cold. One after the other I walked by fancy, beautiful shops with sad sales assistants driven to eternal boredom. Not a customer in sight. And I thought; this is not the future.

So I wondered what innovation of a shopping street could look like. I’m a fan of online shopping, but hardly ever shop for clothes. I like to see clothes for real, touch fabrics and not in the least: try them on. I’m sure A BODY was used when the standard clothes sizing system was created, but it certainly wasn't mine. Moreover shopping is often a social activitity which involves chatting, walking and drinking the ocasional cup of coffee.

So if I were to redo that same shopping street, this is what it would look like.

You walk by a store, look and rotate through the shop window (real clothes in rotatable stands). You rotate until you have an interesting outfit which you order for the fitting room. You go into the changing room, take off your clothes, move on to the fitting room where a shop robot has already delivered your outfit. You can try it on, order other colors or sizes and finally pay by smartphone.

Then I started wondering what the bored sales girls would do. I quickly found an upgrade to their current position. Every shopping street or area can offer personal shopping assistant service. The assistant will no longer work for one brand or shop, but for the entire street. They are trained colour coaches and can help shoppers in need of professional advice. They can also have digital devices at hand with extra tools to better help customers.

I would like to shop in that street one day. I would like it even better to create that street one day. I continued my walk through Brussels. Walking is good for inspiration.