Automated Retail Goes Upmarket with High Fashion

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario - Oct. 21, 2013 - PRLog -- Imagine your product attractively displayed in a stylish retail window, not in a store, but in an automated retailmachine. Quattro Clothiers, a high-end menswear shop in the heart of the busiest fashion shopping district in Toronto, has decided that this is the future. Quattro wanted to expand their reach and increase their exposure. After researching their options, they saw a demonstration of Signifi’s SpotShop dispensing kiosk and “The Quattro Shirt Lab” was born. The Quattro Shirt Lab will feature mid to high-end Italian designer shirts from designers such as Corneliani and Canali, priced from $225-$395. The unique-to-market tray system allows for careful handling of these luxury items and delivers them to clients with signature Quattro packaging, ready-to-go.

Television and local newspapers are expensive and Quattro was making limited progress with online advertising. “The SpotShop provides a great marketing opportunity - huge billboards on 3 sides and a glass display to showcase our products,” says Paul Devellis, Partner at Quattro clothiers. “We could open up at least four Shirt Labs automated stores for the price of opening a traditional store, save on the costs of leasehold improvements and reduce management time and effort.”

A fundamental benefit of the SpotShop is the significant reduction in overhead. You can easily increase distribution, plus save on the cost of ongoing staff. In addition, as the kiosk controls inventory, the concern of shrinkage is eliminated. “Our automated retail SpotShops are a fusion of hassle free online shopping, with the instant gratification of real life shopping,” says Shamira Jaffer, CEO of Signifi. “They are stylish and fun, and can be placed right in the path of travelers and target customers.”

The SpotShop kiosk can be custom designed to showcase any unique brand. The digital video display screen can display custom content to promote products and appeal to different demographics.Quattro also intends to use the machines to drive traffic back to their brick and mortar store by placing units within a three- to four-mile radius.

“I am confident The Shirt Lab will attract new customers and turn heads when people see high-end shirts being sold out of a machine,” Says Paul. “Moreover, the tie-in with Facebook is brilliant. Essentially, we will have our own ever-changing living, breathing advertising machine.” Signifi is developing marketing campaigns leveraging social media directly through the user interface.

One absolute certainty in the realm of human experience is the inevitability of change and shopping is no exception. For the longest time, luxury brands turned up their noses at the notion, determined that high-end shoppers would never be satisfied by an Internet transaction. No, the well-monied would demand the frills of a boutique, the pampering of the staff and the sheer thrill of wandering aisles, shopping for luxury goods.

Net-a-Porter, a high-end portal that specializes solely in luxury goods arrived and turned that wisdom upside down. To be sure, initially there was considerable hand patting and cajoling, but now the big names are lining up. Brands like Stella McCartney, Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander Wang are clamouring to be considered. People admit to spending far more online than they’d dare to in a shop, because it's convenient, and clicking feels far less real than handing over cold cash.

While that’s an interesting shift in the way people secretly think about shopping for luxury goods online, what Signifi Solutions brings retailers is an exciting way to envision what real world shopping will look like in the very near future. Indeed, it has already started happening now.

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