(4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Adidas have created an in-store digital experience to showcase their 8,000+ shoe range. It can be deployed to allow almost any retailer to sell the entire Adidas product range without having to be a flagship store in a major city, which is a huge win for all sorts of retailers big and small.
The experience is defined by a large footwear wall, made of multiple LCD touch screens that use facial recognition to detect a customers gender on approach to the wall. The adiVerse virtual footwear wall then customises the product experience for that gender, and helps guide them to the perfect shoe, or alternatively, let’s them browse the entire range of products, with each rendered in real-time 3D (hence the Intel partnership).
The most popular products get the full content play, with videos, game stats, product specs and even twitter feeds fed through to the customer. Customers can even add product into their virtual cart, and check out via an iPad that sales staff would hold, paying with credit card or cash.
While there are a few things left to be desired with the adiVerse Virtual Footwear Wall, its a great step in the right direction that helps blur the line between instore and online experiences. I’m looking forward to finding out a little more about this as the concept store rolls out…
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January 17th, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Maybe it’s a stupid question, but why would I want to take the effort to go to a store to have an online experience? If I want this kind of experience, I’ll turn on my laptop. If I go to store, I go there to see, feel, test out the real thing, not to flip through virtual ones…
It’s pretty, no doubt about that, but will it sell more shoes? I don’t think so.
January 18th, 2011 at 1:02 am
@Buzzing Bees – although Adidas have a massive range, most of the differences to their sneakers are primarily cosmetic. By being in store you would be able to accurately size and fit your choice of shoe (that brand always seem to come up a little on the small size) and then get that style ordered in whatever rare limited edition tickles your fancy – it is the best of both worlds.