In Part One, I discussed the setbacks retailers face in the fitting room department. The overall message is that the fitting room could and should be a central part of the shopping experience, where the customer is guided (but gently!) towards purchasing options. Ideally, the fitting room should be a destination in itself, so the customer is more likely to bring clothes into a fitting room, even if the goal is to see the actual room! There are many ways retailers can achieve this objective, from simple techniques to more sophisticated options, and many retailers provide strong examples of what the future of the fitting room will look like.
My favorite example of a simple technique to improve the fitting room is from a blog post by Sarah Freedman, in which she describes the treatment she received at Ted Baker in Glasgow. With her brother tagging along (and not happy about spending the day shopping), she promised she would be quickly in and out of the store. However, when her brother sat to wait for her, he was greeted by an associate offering him a beer! Obviously, this immediately changed his opinion of shopping with his sister, and he was no longer urging her to leave the store (in fact, he may have even urged her to spend more time in the store!). This simple focus on not only the customer, but also their shopping companion is a brilliant method of making the fitting room experience much more beneficial for both retailer and consumer. Not only did Ted Baker get Sarah to spend more time trying on outfits in their store, but everyone involved had an extremely positive experience that inspired her to tell everyone about. And I’m willing to bet the next time you’re in Glasgow, you’ll check out their Ted Baker store. I know I will!
Even more appealing is the Dressing Room Bar and Boutique in New York City, which acquired a liquor license and has a FULL BAR inside their store. Let me repeat - a clothing store with a FULL BAR INSIDE. They even offer entertaining drinks, such as the “Dressing Room Special,” or - my favorite - the “Waiting Boyfriend,” which is a shot of whiskey and a Miller High Life for $5. (To the owner of the Dressing Room: If you want GREC to visit and review your store, I’d be more than happy to be flown out to New York to do so!)
There are tons of examples of retailers like Ted Baker or the Dressing Room who focus not only on making the fitting room a fun experience for the shopper, but also the shopper’s companions. One of the most appealing techniques is used in places like Lyell in New York, where shoppers and their companions are given their own secluded room to have mini-fashion shows in, separated from the rest of the store by a curtain. This way, the shopper doesn’t have to parade in front of the whole store if they don’t want to, and it creates a more intimate and fun shopping experience for everyone involved. Even simple comforts like including a television for the waiting friends, or comfortable couches to sit on can do wonders for making the experience a memorable one for everyone involved.
Another simple way to make the fitting room a more enjoyable experience for the shopper is to focus on three main aspects: the lighting, the mirrors, and the hooks. According to USA Today, the “old” way of lighting in fitting rooms was using simple overhead fluorescent light. However, this often leaves clothes looking much different than they would in the outside world under real light, so "new" fitting rooms are
tending to provide a more natural light to cut down on the amount of outfits returned after the customer decides they don’t like the way it looks in the real world. Similarly, “old” mirrors often were distorted, making the shopper appear skinnier. However, “new” mirrors in dressed-up fitting rooms do what mirrors should do: accurately reflect the consumer’s appearance. And as far as hooks go, USA Today found a near-ubiquitous complaint from shoppers is that there are either not enough hooks to hang their belongings, or there aren’t enough. This is solved easily enough - give the shopper more hooks and places to put their belongings when they’re trying on outfits!
Of course, there are also more complicated challenges retailers face, such as the challenge of making sure the customer can be constantly attended to by associates. If you’ve ever needed to call an associate while trying on items at Victoria’s Secret, you may not know the name but you’re probably familiar with Alert Technologies: their system lets shoppers call for assistance at the touch of a button, as well as giving staff an overview of which fitting rooms are available, full, or in need of service. Tech services in the dressing room such as this create a much more seamless, ordered experience for the customer and makes the entire process of trying on and purchasing items much less stressful for everyone involved.
Taking that idea even further is the fairly recent addition of “smart mirrors” in dressing rooms, which open up the possibilities to a near-endless amount. Smart mirrors can do just about anything: In addition to calling the associate for assistance, the customer could even select on a touch screen an item they would like delivered to their fitting room, to save themselves the embarrassment, for example, of having to ask for or hunt down an item in a larger size. Internet-enabled smart mirrors can also be used to send pictures of the customer in an outfit to their friends’ mobile devices for immediate “yes/no” reactions on outfits, to help the customer make up their mind. And with RFID tags, smart mirrors can immediately recognize any items brought into the fitting room and provide on the screen a slew of information - from care instructions to what country the cotton in the product came from, even to suggesting matching shoes or accessories in stock! The possibilities really are endless, and stores such as Prada in New York are just beginning to experiment with these new devices.
However, it remains up to each individual retailer to decide what fits best within its budget and customer demographics. Obviously, if you deal primarily in clothes for the elderly, installing the most advanced smart mirror system in your dressing rooms probably won’t go over so well with the clientele as it would in, say, a store aimed at teenagers and young adults. But every retailer should look at their own fitting rooms and figure out a way to make it more appealing. It’s really up to you; would installing an advanced technological system help your customers, or would simply providing more hooks, better lighting, and the occasional beer do the trick? (My two cents: Beer, please! Lots of beer.)
Even more appealing is the Dressing Room Bar and Boutique in New York City, which acquired a liquor license and has a FULL BAR inside their store. Let me repeat - a clothing store with a FULL BAR INSIDE. They even offer entertaining drinks, such as the “Dressing Room Special,” or - my favorite - the “Waiting Boyfriend,” which is a shot of whiskey and a Miller High Life for $5. (To the owner of the Dressing Room: If you want GREC to visit and review your store, I’d be more than happy to be flown out to New York to do so!)
There are tons of examples of retailers like Ted Baker or the Dressing Room who focus not only on making the fitting room a fun experience for the shopper, but also the shopper’s companions. One of the most appealing techniques is used in places like Lyell in New York, where shoppers and their companions are given their own secluded room to have mini-fashion shows in, separated from the rest of the store by a curtain. This way, the shopper doesn’t have to parade in front of the whole store if they don’t want to, and it creates a more intimate and fun shopping experience for everyone involved. Even simple comforts like including a television for the waiting friends, or comfortable couches to sit on can do wonders for making the experience a memorable one for everyone involved.
Another simple way to make the fitting room a more enjoyable experience for the shopper is to focus on three main aspects: the lighting, the mirrors, and the hooks. According to USA Today, the “old” way of lighting in fitting rooms was using simple overhead fluorescent light. However, this often leaves clothes looking much different than they would in the outside world under real light, so "new" fitting rooms are
Of course, there are also more complicated challenges retailers face, such as the challenge of making sure the customer can be constantly attended to by associates. If you’ve ever needed to call an associate while trying on items at Victoria’s Secret, you may not know the name but you’re probably familiar with Alert Technologies: their system lets shoppers call for assistance at the touch of a button, as well as giving staff an overview of which fitting rooms are available, full, or in need of service. Tech services in the dressing room such as this create a much more seamless, ordered experience for the customer and makes the entire process of trying on and purchasing items much less stressful for everyone involved.
Taking that idea even further is the fairly recent addition of “smart mirrors” in dressing rooms, which open up the possibilities to a near-endless amount. Smart mirrors can do just about anything: In addition to calling the associate for assistance, the customer could even select on a touch screen an item they would like delivered to their fitting room, to save themselves the embarrassment, for example, of having to ask for or hunt down an item in a larger size. Internet-enabled smart mirrors can also be used to send pictures of the customer in an outfit to their friends’ mobile devices for immediate “yes/no” reactions on outfits, to help the customer make up their mind. And with RFID tags, smart mirrors can immediately recognize any items brought into the fitting room and provide on the screen a slew of information - from care instructions to what country the cotton in the product came from, even to suggesting matching shoes or accessories in stock! The possibilities really are endless, and stores such as Prada in New York are just beginning to experiment with these new devices.
However, it remains up to each individual retailer to decide what fits best within its budget and customer demographics. Obviously, if you deal primarily in clothes for the elderly, installing the most advanced smart mirror system in your dressing rooms probably won’t go over so well with the clientele as it would in, say, a store aimed at teenagers and young adults. But every retailer should look at their own fitting rooms and figure out a way to make it more appealing. It’s really up to you; would installing an advanced technological system help your customers, or would simply providing more hooks, better lighting, and the occasional beer do the trick? (My two cents: Beer, please! Lots of beer.)
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