Intel brings online shopping in-store with interactive video wall

Friday, May 13, 2011 - 11:47 by Simon Crisp

Chip manufacturer Intel has teamed up with sports clothing firm Adidas, in order to create an impressive in-store video wall which takes advantage of techniques used in safe shopping online to provide consumers with a unique, interactive experience on the high street.

With more and more people choosing to use safe shopping online rather than trudging through the high street to pay increased prices for goods, it has been necessary for many retailers to innovate and borrow popular functions from e-commerce to stay afloat.

In the US Adidas stores, a new service called adiVERSE has been created to pique the interest of shoppers and let them enjoy the kind of retail experience they might expect online, albeit on a much larger scale.

A video wall erected with 12 widescreen displays and controlled using a strip of tablet computers, allows shoppers to flick through an enormous selection of shoe styles. They can then customise the colours, check out the information about the material that is used to make each one and of course place an order for the shoe to be delivered to the store of their choice or to their home.

Full 3D graphics let customers get a 360 degree look at the item they have created before they commit and the heavy emphasis on personalisation will definitely appeal to people who do not just want to buy off the shelf products.

Of course because it is an in-store environment it will be possible to try on an equivalent version of the shoe so that you know how it will fit and feel when you get the finished product.

It is possible that multichannel retailers will soon have similar setups available in stores across the UK and as high street shopping becomes more interactive then the e-commerce integration will be more pronounced.