Swipe This, Not That: Intel Brings Touchscreens to Retail Partners

Online shopping is continuing to grow, but it still only accounts for less than 10% of actual retail sales, according to USA Today. However, consumers are much more informed about the products they buy and the best prices available due to research done on smartphones and online.

Because of this, some retailers are beginning to integrate interactive touchscreen experiences within their own retail spaces. In one high-profile example, Macy’s has been testing a four-foot-wide, interactive-touchscreen-covered Beauty Spot kiosk at four of its locations since November.

Powered by Intel, which is looking to make shopping more of an interactive, engaging experience, Macy's new touch-enabled intelligent connected system helps "self-directed" customers (the ones who shirk employee assistance with a dismissive "Just looking!" response) navigate the cosmetics section.

"It is particularly aimed at a customer who comes into a department store but really prefers to shop on their own, as opposed to coming up to a counter and getting assistance," Macy's Jim Sluzewski told USA Today. 

"From getting news about the latest trends, product recommendations based on looks customers want to achieve, to actually printing out a shopping list for a clerk to fill and more, this Intel powered system is transforming the in-store shopping experience," is how Intel puts it.

In another example, Adidas last year introduced a “virtual shoe wall” (also with Intel), which boosted sales of soccer cleats 500% in a two-week run in the U.K., compared with a similar-priced cleat launched six months earlier offline, USA Today notes. Those who wanted to buy a product could do so by touchscreen and then pick up their shoes at a designated checkout counter for digital purchases.

HSN, as a TV and web-based home shopping channel, doesn’t have retail locations, so it commissioned the HSN Touch Wall from Intel (watch Intel's demo above and below for the National Retail Federation's Big Show conference last month in New York, where it also showed Kraft Foods' iSample — which uses facial recognition — in action).

HSN's touchscreen wall is designed to engage consumers in airports and malls and boost sales in channels where shoppers wouldn't expect to find HSN. The idea is the “15-foot interactive touch-screen … invites passersby to play a virtual pizza-making game hosted by chef Wolfgang Puck using his products that are sold by the network,” USA Today adds. “While the pizza is ‘baking,’ users can learn more about the kitchenware and ingredients they used” and then recieve an email to their phone that lets them purchase the desired object.

"It is a way to refresh the shopping experience without having to rebuild a new store," says Joe Skorupa, editor of retail publication RIS News, to USA Today. The bigger question, of course — as cool and interactive as the touchscreen technology is, don't customers still want to touch and try on merchandise?