WASHINGTON — Red pumps. Silver slingbacks. Bronze flats.
Black suede boots. Size 7 1/2, please.
Without leaving the customer’s side, Macy’s sales associate Felicia Dixon uses a small, hand-held electronic device that essentially summons the shoes — in the right style, color and size — from the stockroom. It is not quite magic: A clerk in the backroom receives the request electronically and brings out the merchandise.
The shopper does not have to hunt around for a clerk each time she wants to try on a different style or needs a different size.
Better service means happier customers, and that could lead to more sales.
At least that is the hope, from the retailer’s perspective.
Stores spend $34.5 billion a year on all kinds of technology, from the cables and routers behind the scene to in-store devices such as price checkers, self-service checkout stations and electronic kiosks for customers, says the National Retail Federation.
With older equipment needing to be replaced, spending for high-tech upgrades is expected to increase, the federation says.
At the Macy’s in Arlington, Va., store manager Paul Gassner said shoe-locators technology has “significantly improved sales” and proved to be a big-time saver.
It lets sales associates such as Dixon get shoes on customers’ feet more quickly by saving employees the time of having to keep running back to the stockroom.
It took Dixon a week or two to master the device. Now it’s easy, she says.
Stores also are increasingly interested in ways to use technology to provide more information about products or other things while shoppers are in the store.
One example is the interactive kiosk. Through a live video link, a customer can ask an expert about equipment needed to install a home-theater system or how to connect computers at home via wireless routers or what kind of hiking equipment or kayak to buy.
Hogan says that in the future, shoppers might be able to pay for their purchases by touching a finger to a screen or electronic pad, which would match a digitally stored imprint of the finger, and typing in a personal ID number.
Larry Lewark, Macy’s point person on technology, predicts that in five years customers routinely will pay for merchandise with a few clicks on their cellphone or other personal digital devices.
Chad Doiron, senior strategist at Kurt Salmon Associates, a management consulting firm for retailers and other companies, looks down the road and sees what he calls interactive mirrors — mirrors that double as computer screens — to help customers decide on what clothing to buy.
“You are standing in front of the mirror. You are holding an item. The item has an RFID (radio frequency identification) tag. The screen can display that item, can display other colors of that item, what other things are in stock for that item — different colors and sizes,” Doiron says.
