It uses technology to help you make the perfect purchase…

If you’re heading to Mall of the Emirates in the next few days, keep your eyes peeled for the ‘Store of the Future’; a new pop-up built in collaboration with Cisco. In it, you’ll find a ‘digital shopping experience, uniquely designed to make shopping a lot more experiential, entertaining, and easy’.

Shoppers can browse and try on items virtually through an interactive mirror screens, meaning you don’t need to physically touch a product to see what it looks like on you. This feature is focused on the beauty section of the store, allowing shoppers to try on new makeup through augmented reality.

Several items are displayed, which come with a built in ‘lift and learn’ feature, displaying a product’s information on the screen in-front of you. The digital content on the many screens in-store will change based on anonymous facial analytics, such as gender and age group.

The store is currently taken over by That Concept Store, featuring collections from a multitude of brands, including products in apparel, accessories, jewellery, shoes and homeware, on display until February.

In-store cameras track the movement and behaviour of shoppers, monitoring number of visitors, demographics, footfall heat maps, dwell times, sentiment analysis, store capacity, physical distancing, and face mask compliance to keep shoppers safe throughout the experience.

Fuad Sharaf, Managing Director, UAE Shopping Malls, Majid Al Futtaim Properties commented: “The retail industry is constantly evolving to meet the needs of customers worldwide. Creating a seamless, interactive, engaging, safe and personalised customer experience are five of the main drivers for this digital development.

“We’ve learnt over the past two years that everyone needs to feel comfortable and safe when visiting malls, which is why one of reasons that the “Store of the Future” was designed was to provide an experience that simplifies shopping and offers limited contact when compared to a traditional store.”

@malloftheemirates