Store of the future, here we come!

eBay Inc. and Westfield Labs said Wednesday the companies were partnering with retailers Rebecca Minkoff, Sony and TOMS to power a trio of digital storefronts in the Westfield shopping mall in San Francisco. Consumers will be able to buy curated merchandise from each brand via a shoppable window, pay with PayPal and then arrange for free home delivery or pick up within the mall for select items.

As Alistair Barr writes in USA Today, the digital screens are a boon for both eBay and Westfield. “Large, interactive shopping screens may help retailers generate more sales from existing space they lease from mall operators like Westfield and other commercial landlords,” he notes, while for eBay, “the technology helps the company generate more revenue and profit from the much larger physical commerce sector, not just online transactions.”

• Source: http://blog.ebay.com/ebay-inc-and-westfield-partner-with-rebecca-minkoff-sony-and-toms-for-digital-storefronts/

• eBay Retail Innovation team - Healey Cypher, Michael Franklin, Tracy Ogishi (Business development, Project managment) Paul Reidl, Darren Endo (design & engineering)
• R/GA - design, engineering
• EPIC Design Lab (James Skorupski, Flynn Joffray) - kinect & app analytics engineering, general design and engineering support and consultation
• Westfield Labs - Facilities support

• Kiosk Interfaces: Javascript/HTML/CSS web apps
• Backend: Node.js, C#/Kinect for passive analytics
• Entities involved: Westfield Labs, Rebecca Minkoff, Sony, TOMS, R/GA,eBay Marketplaces, PayPal
• Hardware: 4k rear projection (stacked for high brightness), Transparent Touch film for subsections of projected screen, Kinect-driven analytics