Smart mirror fashion technology for better customer brand engagement

Abstract

The emergence of new technology provides fashion retailers with innovative ways to deliver the shopping experience and engage with customers. One innovation is smart mirror fashion technology (SMFT) which enables customers to virtually try-on products and have a more pleasing experience within physical retail stores. This kind of technology is considered a powerful decision tool for online customers because it enables them to more readily experience clothing merchandise and as a result engage with the brand in a unique way. Previous research on SMFT in retail settings have been limited to online retail formats, and seemingly ignore the relationship between SMFT and customer brand engagement. Drawing from three case studies, featuring interview data, we explore how SMFT could enhance customer brand engagement in-store. We discuss the impact of SMFT on customer brand engagement and advance a new conceptualisation for managing SMFT in physical retail stores. We synthesise these findings into three actionable points.