Fast Retailing focuses on online-offline integration at new pilot store
Japanese powerhouse Fast Retailing is blurring the lines between online and offline shopping at the newest location of its fashion-forward, low-cost apparel brand, GU.
GU Studio is located in Tokyo’s Harajuku fashion district. (GU operates nearly 400 stores across Asia.) The store allows shoppers to experiment with clothing combinations on a virtual mannequin and create a digital avatar. The merchandise assortment features samples of GU's full lineup of products for men and women — with all goods ordered online and then picked up by the customer at their desired time and place.
The store has its own app, the GU Style Creator. After downloading it, shoppers can scan QR codes on their favorite items. They can save the merchandise for review later, or purchase items inside the app. Purchased items can be delivered to their home, or picked up at a nearby GU store or a designated Seven Eleven location. (Select Seven-Eleven locations in Japan serve as pick-up locations for merchandise ordered online from Fast Retailing’s brands.)
Shoppers can also create a personal avatar at an interactive digital display that allows them to virtually select items from the store’s assortment, and then model the clothing on the avatar (the display has a camera that takes a picture of the shopper). They can purchase the items on the app.
Shoppers can also link the avatar to their own personal account on the app, with the avatar and related information saved after leaving the store. And even if customers do not return to the physical store, they can continue using their avatar to model and coordinate outfits wherever they like.
GU Studio is located in Tokyo’s Harajuku fashion district. (GU operates nearly 400 stores across Asia.) The store allows shoppers to experiment with clothing combinations on a virtual mannequin and create a digital avatar. The merchandise assortment features samples of GU's full lineup of products for men and women — with all goods ordered online and then picked up by the customer at their desired time and place.
The store has its own app, the GU Style Creator. After downloading it, shoppers can scan QR codes on their favorite items. They can save the merchandise for review later, or purchase items inside the app. Purchased items can be delivered to their home, or picked up at a nearby GU store or a designated Seven Eleven location. (Select Seven-Eleven locations in Japan serve as pick-up locations for merchandise ordered online from Fast Retailing’s brands.)
Shoppers can also create a personal avatar at an interactive digital display that allows them to virtually select items from the store’s assortment, and then model the clothing on the avatar (the display has a camera that takes a picture of the shopper). They can purchase the items on the app.
Shoppers can also link the avatar to their own personal account on the app, with the avatar and related information saved after leaving the store. And even if customers do not return to the physical store, they can continue using their avatar to model and coordinate outfits wherever they like.