The Husbands’ Pods

A Shanghai department store advertising the husband’s pod, a place to park the husband as the wife takes her time shopping around. Credit: Imagine China

The news is not “new”, it was on newspapers a few months ago, but it came back to me as we are going from the Black Friday to the Cyber Monday. A shopping bonanza that is shifting from brick and mortar retail store to the cyberspace.

It is about a Shanghai shopping mail that has moved the concept of providing a kindergarten facility to entertain little kids as they parents shop to the level of caring for the husband as his wife is doing the shopping. The couple enters the mall hand in hand and the wife parks her husband into a pod where he can engage himself in watching sporting events or playing games.  It is not clear whether she locks him in and takes the key away, at least I was not able to find out watching the clip (I am not familiar with Bengali, may be the speakers made it clear…).

Yes, you may smile at the news (or you might appreciate the value) but the point it is making is that shopping in a physical store may not be fun to all. This is actually one of the reasons why people are buying more and more in the virtual store from the convenience of their home, as well from their office and as they commute.

The physical store risks to become a showcase where shoppers feel the merchandise and then buy it on line.

This nice cartoon makes the point. Credit: marketoonist.com

Retail is going to change dramatically in the next decade.  Nordstrom has opened a store (Nordstrom Local) in West Hollywood, California, in September 2017 where they are not selling dresses but they have dresses you can try on with the help of a stylist, you can get manicured, chat with your friend over a cup of coffee or a beer. If you decide you like the fit you place your order and the dress will be delivered at your home step by the evening. They are doing this on a trial base to experience the reaction of their customers. If positive, as some are ready to bet, they will extend the concept.

Industry 4.0 is possibly an enabler, or may be a consequence?, of this shift. In a decade time it will be possible to print a dress on the spot with addictive manufacturing. May be you can quickly print a mock up with tissue that can be dissolved and reused, and then use the real tissue for the final print, which may take a bit longer to print but you’ll be on your way well before it is finished since it will be delivered at your home later in the day.

Further down the lane you may probably “buy” the instruction that will be used by your home printer to print your new dress. Which, of course, will generate the problem of illegal duplication of dresses (sounds familiar? We faced this problem years ago with illegal duplication of song mag tapes, then with the cloning of digital songs…).

We cannot be sure how retail is going to shape in twenty years time, but for sure it is going to be different from what we are used today.

About Roberto Saracco

Roberto Saracco fell in love with technology and its implications long time ago. His background is in math and computer science. Until April 2017 he led the EIT Digital Italian Node and then was head of the Industrial Doctoral School of EIT Digital up to September 2018. Previously, up to December 2011 he was the Director of the Telecom Italia Future Centre in Venice, looking at the interplay of technology evolution, economics and society. At the turn of the century he led a World Bank-Infodev project to stimulate entrepreneurship in Latin America. He is a senior member of IEEE where he leads the New Initiative Committee and co-chairs the Digital Reality Initiative. He is a member of the IEEE in 2050 Ad Hoc Committee. He teaches a Master course on Technology Forecasting and Market impact at the University of Trento. He has published over 100 papers in journals and magazines and 14 books.