In the next few decades, shopping may be different from the way it is now in local malls and supermarkets.
You don't have to jump up and down the Delorean sports car to see how technology will continue to change every aspect of our lives, like the way we shop. Although some technologies have not been widely used today, they will certainly change the way people shop today. So, is it using a virtual fitting room or a high-tech checkout and shopping cart? Let's look at how people go shopping in the future on weekends and vacations.
Services currently in use
Social shopping
In recent years, social media is becoming a very important part of our lives, and it's no wonder that physical stores and online stores are getting ready to socialize their business. Are you anxious to find a gift to buy? Then go to the popular online visual social networking site Pinterest, where you can browse products and filter by price.
Many traditional retail outlets have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, which release the latest and hottest product and discount information. Social group website Fancy provides users with discounted prices and coupons based on images that users "like". Fancy's online "likes" and Facebook's like (likes), Pinterest on the pin (the favorite content with a Pushpin on their home page) function the same. Fab.com, also a social shopping site, has a real-time access to content interface, similar to the Facebook News acquisition interface, which prompts you to buy and enjoy products from other members.
Other social shopping sites such as karma can help you buy gifts for Facebook friends; The Sneakpeeq website can post everything you have on Facebook. The Kaboodle website provides social bookmarking services for online stores.
Location, Position
Apps like Shopkick (you can download the iphone or download the Android version) give you the urge to walk into the store. If you're using a popular location-based social networking application Foursquare, chances are you'll find a few local stores that can be discounted at checkout. The Poorsquare website gives you an easy way to analyze the discounted information of 85 U.S. cities in one place.
Some companies, such as Groupon,livingsocial,at&t and Google, offer local trading services to encourage you to support your own businesses. Obviously, your position will play an increasingly important role in the shopping experience.
Future technology
Virtual Trial Wear
We bet that fitting in a narrow, small room is not so pleasant. You don't have much choice unless you're a VIP in a luxurious, rather stylish boutique. This is why we are sure that you will fall in love with virtual fitting rooms and augmented reality applications that put your passion for fashion on the finger end.
Want to buy a pair of glasses on the internet? There's no need to guess which one is best for you-use ebay's stylish iphone app (download ebay's fashion app), and it will overlay the glasses onto your face photo.
But what if you want to buy something much bigger than a pair of glasses?
Thanks to Microsoft's Kinect motion tracking camera technology, systems like Facecake swive and kinectshop can wear clothes and accessories to your virtual model on the screen, Kinectshop is still a prototype, and Facecake Swiverl has been used since 2011. With Facecake, you can even choose the background of a virtual fitting room (try on a wedding dress in the background of a church or garden!) To improve your shopping experience.
Get the perfect, custom-made outfit
Tired of jeans that don't fit your curve? or the torso fits but the arms are too tight? Everyone's body size is different, and sometimes you have to trim your clothes to make them perfect for you. But with 3D scanning technology, every piece of clothing you buy will fit your size.
Companies like Bodymetrics and fittedfashion, by scanning your body in High-tech photography rooms to get the most accurate measurements, can tailor clothes for you. Now, the two companies are focused on making perfect jeans, but they are also planning to extend their business to other products.
High tech shopping cart and checkout
High technology allows shopping carts to be found everywhere in shopping malls and supermarkets. Whole Foods, a natural organic food retailer, is now testing the prototype of Microsoft's Kinect shopping cart. This shopping cart can follow you through the aisle with only movement and sound control. In China, a supermarket chain uses a shopping cart equipped with a tablet computer to guide shoppers through the maze of aisles.
Back in the United States, several supermarkets in the northeast used a device called scan it. Buyers are free to scan the price of their purchases while shopping. It's nice not to have to line up at the checkout desk, but it would be even better if the store could use something as advanced as a new Toshiba-like object recognition scanner. By just pointing the product at the camera and identifying the shape and color, even without the barcode or QR code, the scanner can identify the product.
Welcome to the future.
We still need to wait a long time to make these technologies and our daily life closely intertwined, people can not imagine these products before the invention of what people live. Change can be scary, but for shopping, this change will not only bring convenience to everyone, but will also make every purchase close to what you need.
Now, if we can find a way to make technology pay for what we want to buy, how good it is!