Ralph Lauren, a luxury men’s, women’s, and children’s
apparel, accessories and home furnishings provider, has opened eight
RFID-enabled interactive fitting rooms to test in it’s flagship store on Fifth
Avenue in New York City.
Ralph Lauren has implemented new technologically advanced
fitting rooms that include “smart mirrors” with a touchscreen and built in RFID
reader to identify the RFID tag that is placed on each item that they
sell. The mirrors make a memorable and
unique shopping experience for customers, as they allow them to choose their
lighting preference in the dressing room, choose between one of six different
languages, and communicate with sales associates who may be in other areas of
the store.
Since implementing the RFID technology in the New York City
flagship store, Ralph Lauren has seen a higher conversion to purchase rate.
With all of the assistance that the smart dressing rooms provide, customers
have become more likely to purchase the items that they try on. Ralph Lauren
associates and the consumers alike love the new technology and their new
shopping experience.
Not only have the RFID tags been increasing sales, they also
send data to Ralph Lauren head quarters. This data helps employees keep track
of inventory, and also lets them know what items are most popular, and what
items people tend to try on but do not purchase.
Although the smart mirrors have increased sales and are
incredibly productive for the Ralph Lauren company, they do have some flaws.
The RFID Journal article did not mention how much Ralph Lauren is paying for
this new technology. Is their increase in sales high enough to validate
spending so much on new mirrors? Or are they wasting money by implementing this
new technology?
The mirrors are only being tested in a single store in New
York City. This is Ralph Lauren’s largest store, and their busiest. Because
this store has such a large amount of people coming in and out every day, they
cannot be sure customers would have the same reaction to their smart mirrors in
different areas.
With technology comes technological errors. How can Ralph
Lauren make sure that the smart mirrors are picking up information from the
correct dressing room, and sending the correct information out to sales associates?
How do they react when something goes wrong with the mirrors?
The “smart mirrors” have appeared to be a valuable asset to
Ralph Lauren’s Fifth Avenue store, but are they a valuable asset to Ralph
Lauren as a whole?
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