Endless Shopping Possibilities in Store, Powered by EVERY Store in a Dynamic Marketplace.
WHEN YOU'RE A GLOBAL RETAILER, FANS WANT IT ALL IN EVERY STORE
Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo took the world by storm, rising to be the second largest retailer in the world just a few years after breaking into the Western markets. New stores, new customers, and massive scale all present opportunities and crisis alike, which the Japenese have a word for: Wéijī. In this Wéijī situation Uniqlo USA found themselves, they tapped the founding members of Polyform to help with a new vision for a connected store that combined the analytic & marketing power of an e-commerce site, with the in-store experience that had made Uniqlo famous.
MORE THAN JUST A KIOSK, THIS IS A PORTAL INTO THE WORLD OF UNIQLO
Collaborating with the Uniqlo USA team in New York City the team toured the flagship stores in search of opportunities for improvement. During our visit we experienced a mob of buyers clamouring to cop the latest collab with art superstar KAWS.
Our Discovery Process unveiled that these drops sold out quickly in flagship stores, resulting many buyers leaving empty handed and frustrated, even though there were MANY other Uniqlo locations with ample stock. With this in mind we aimed to create an in-store experience that enabled buyers to access stock from ALL stores, not just the one they were standing in, while maintaing the “hype” of the in-store experience that was part of the culture for drops of this nature.
MINIMAL EFFORT, MAXIMUM CART SIZE EXPANSION
The Design Phase identified 3 keys to power our optimization: a stock access kiosk, connection to the national Uniqlo inventory system, and a payment system that would enable customers to quickly and securely check themselves out. Addressing these keys we created a familiar e-commerce style interface for ordering garments from other stores, along with a RFID & UPC scanner to combine in-store purchases with their online order, and also presented the user intelligent recommendations and sizing options (powered by the Uniqlo Connect system we had implemented around the store), and then empowered them to complete their purchase right from the kiosk.
BIG IMPACT ON STORE & Brand
The Uniqlo Connect system, composed of our smart try-on mirror, endless aisle kiosk, targeting marketing easel, and in-store visual sensor system for heat-mapping and customer analytic gathering integrates inventory management systems online and in-store with rich & live visitor data for a hyper-targeted shopping and information gathering CX.
The system proved SIGNIFICANT cart-size improvement throughout pilot stores, leading to a shift in strategy that’s impacted the entirety of North American Uniqlo locations.
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