Shopping…with Robots!
Men notoriously dislike shopping for clothing. Then along came the Hointer Beta Store, adding robots to the equation to make the experience as fast and simple as ordering a cup of coffee! Yes—you heard right—robots!
Convenient—and seriously sci-fi
On the outside, Hointer is a traditional brick-and-mortar retailer, but when customers step through the door, the store wirelessly identifies them via their Hointer smartphone app, coded with their size and style preferences. Remember that scene in Terminator 2 when Schwarzenegger walks naked into the biker bar and his computer brain scans everyone there to see whose clothes will fit him? Hointer is like that, minus the explosions and killer robots!
How it works
Instead of racks of clothing loaded with different sizes, the Hointer aisles tastefully exhibit one item of each style of jean, shirt, shoe and belt they stock. Customers walk uncluttered aisles and scan the eTag of each style they’d like to try on. A robot-operated stockroom delivers the garments with a whoosh to the assigned dressing room within 30 seconds. For men who would rather not browse, the Hointer store computer retains their past purchases, and will recommend new style choices based on preference. A customer could actually walk into the store and head straight for the fitting rooms, selecting ten different clothing recommendations from the Hointer app as they walk. By the time they arrive in the changing room, the clothing they chose is already waiting for them, sized to their body. Customers who have difficulty using the Hointer smartphone app can contact smartphone computer support for fast, easy resolution.
Like the self-checkout registers becoming popular among grocery retailers, Hointer allows customers to check out using a tablet and card reader located in the fitting room, where tablet computer support is available to handle any problems.
Retail on the cutting edge
The cool Hointer Beta Store innovations don’t end there. In addition to the convenience of no-hassle shopping, Hointer offers free, next-day, custom alterations to its customers. In-store tailors will measure your instep and resize your jeans accordingly, and you may pick up your pants the day after purchase, or have them mailed.
Since launch, Hointer added a women’s collection as well, and is working to open new stores in New York, Seattle and California.
Nadia Shouraboura, CEO and founder of Hointer, told NFC World, “It is so much better to shop in a physical store, but I didn’t like the traditional store where you had to deal with piles of clothes everywhere just to find the right size.” Shouraboura previously worked as Technology Vice President for Amazon’s Worldwide Operations, and is no stranger to implementing cutting edge technology in retail. “I think it is very important for us, as retailers around the world, to reinvent the way customers shop in store. It has lost its edge and has fallen behind online shopping and what it needs is an infusion of sorts; an infusion of technology that I found in NFC.”
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