TechTheDay

We disagree with the assertion in the title of one recent Chron article that states that “Inspiration Corridor can help save shopping malls.” The general idea of this technology, in our opinion, is remotely capable of helping shopping malls that are struggling to attract customers. It’s hard to compete with the convenience of online shopping. An inefficient and poorly thought-out technology like Inspiration Corridor is not the right solution.

Inspiration Corridor: An Overview

Inspiration Corridor is a new shopping technology solution from French shopping mall operator Klépierre. It is a system designed to provide shoppers something they can’t just get by shopping online, from their homes. Created in collaboration with digital advertising agency DigitasLBi, Inspiration Corridor is essentially a booth that features hi-tech equipment that provide a visually-rich shopping experience.

It is basically a virtual showroom with impressive visual and interactive technologies. It provides access to everything there is to know about the items available in a shopping mall. It helps a customer choose the most fitting items to buy. It offers suggestions based on a customer’s body type. Everything is shown on an array of touch displays that allow users to go over the items intuitively. Items can then be added to a customer’s shopping list by pressing a palm on the item shown on the screen.

In Inspiration Corridor, a person’s body type is determined by doing an actual body scan or profiling. As such, the likelihood of providing accurate or truly appropriate recommendations is relatively high. This French technology is not just interesting. It is also designed to be accurate and to emphatically address a customer’s wants, as how its developers would like people to believe.

Why Inspiration Corridor Is Unlikely to Help Struggling Malls

1. Expensive and Uncertain ROI – We’re really baffled how the developers of Inspiration Corridor think that it can help malls when it does not seem to justify the costs. It is basically just imitating something that can be done online, except for the actual body measurements. Imagine twin walls of interactive touch displays that always need to be powered up to accommodate walk-in customers at any time. A shopping mall may be able to put up one Inspiration Corridor system but it will just end up serving as an novelty attraction. It has no real ability to entice online shoppers to go back to traditional shopping. It is an expensive investment with no real benefits in raising sales.

2. Limited to Clothes – Inspiration Corridor’s video demonstration focuses on clothes. There is nothing about the system being usable for other products like appliances, mobile devices, or even wearable tech. It would have been better if it can also be used for other products. With its current state, it appears that interactive websites are much more usable.

3. Requires a Smartphone – After spending some time within Inspiration Corridor, a customer will then need his or her smartphone to find the items chosen through the system. Directions on where to find the items are forwarded to the smartphone. This means the need for an app and the need to configure some settings. It’s unlikely to appeal to ordinary customers who have been accustomed to online shopping. The process does not look more convenient that online shopping although it can be exciting or interesting in the first few instances of use.

All in all, the whole process of using Inspiration Corridor is not that appealing to bring online shoppers back to traditional mall shopping. It even has the tendency to dissuade some customers who are not that keen in using a lot of technology for simple things like buying clothes.

A Better Solution

Smartphone app – a simple app can do almost everything that Inspiration Corridor offers. An app is also way cheaper than implementing something like the Inspiration Corridor. Additionally, an app is something more easily accessible to customers. Almost everyone already has a smartphone. Installing an app to make shopping easier shouldn’t be that much of a problem. Besides, the Inspiration Corridor system also requires the use of a smartphone app so why not just let the app do everything in a more convenient and hassle-free manner?

The “actual body scan” (as shown in the image below) can easily be replaced by letting customers input their body stats along with a full body photo. It can also be done through an app with the help of the camera of a smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

The idea behind Inspiration Corridor is simply too ambitious and costly. It’s more of a gimmick than an actually useful system. Having faster Wi-Fi at the mall is an even better solution if the goal is to attract online shoppers back into the mall. This technology is more likely to increase operating expenses than to increase sales.