Globalizer

  It's painful thing for me to buy clothes because I hate to take off my old clothes and try on new clothes. for ladies, I think it's far more painful. they will take off and take on any beautiful clothes again and again. they inspect themselves from every angle view in front of the mirror. it can be the hardest work in the world!

  Now a design company IconNicholson demonstrated their creative idea "virtual mirror". this new technology allows a mirror to send live video from the store to friends and family anywhere in the world through a Web site called Shoptogether.com which will launch this year, then shopper can get comments from friends and family. moreover, Friends can connect to the virtual Mirror and search the store to find items and suggest looks to the shopper that virtually appear on the mirror. IconNicholson call this interactive shopping "social retailing".

  It seems a good solution for me and people who are not willing to trying on in the fitting room and who need friends' suggestion to pick up clothes. but soon, I realize this technology is not perfect. 

  first question: why does shopper decide to buy this clothes normally?

  2 reasons: 1) the clothes has good looking, color, fabric and quality. 2) the size is fitting my body! no doubt, virtual mirror can easily satisfy first reason. for people having normal body shape, it can satisfy 2nd reason too. but we know 1.1 billion people are obesity in the world; in USA, there are around 40% adult overweight and obesity. I believe virtual mirror is not a good tool for them.

  second question: feedback is really instant?

  according to the press release of IconNicholson, this technology is a value-added function for shopper's current social network, not to create a new social network for shopper (my understanding). that means only friends are allowed to provide comments. if a shopper wants to get useful instant feedback from friends, the precondition is that friends should be always online until shopping is finished. otherwise, how to guarantee feedback is instant and useful?

  nevertheless, I like their idea. it's promising. and I would like to recommend my solutions on above 2 questions:

  solution for question 1: using imaging sensors to scan shopper from head to foot and from front to back, then calculate shopper's body shape. search through the database to find out matched size. 

  solution for question 2: overhaul the design thinking. that is shopper can build new social network via shopping! as a result, shopper always can get instant and useful feedback and make shopaholic friends.

  I am looking forward to new progress on this technology and its application. new way to social networking!

  I just wrote an article to discover top global companies' debut time in china. I have to admit these giants responsed quickly because many of them entered china market just after china began to implement the reform and the open policy. they are the good example for companies in emerging markets. 

  their foresight is amazing in that era without internet! now, although any company can get huge information on the internet, it's becoming more and more important to smartly and rapidly pick out useful information and make fast decision.

  you can check the detail debut time from this link:

  http://www.titanoasis.com/en/play/view_article.php?id=7