EBay Making Some NYC Store Windows Shoppable

June 6, 2013 by Dave Haynes

spa-storeEBay is switching on four shop windows in New York’s lower east side tomorrow as interactive browsing and payment gateways, letting fashion-hounds select, pay for and arrange same-day shipping of goods otherwise sold inside.

The first of these “shoppable windows” goes live Saturday, for a month, at locations of Kate Spade Saturday, a new fashion brand launched this year by apparel retailer Fifth & Pacific Companies Inc.

Reuters is reporting that the presumably projection screens are 9 feet wide and 2 feet high and will appear on the front windows of closed stores. Shoppers will be able to touch the screens to order, Reuters reports, and have products delivered to them within an hour via courier. Payment will be accepted by the couriers through PayPal Here, a mobile payment service developed by eBay.

This is the latest effort by eBay to work more closely with large retailers that are looking to reach more online and mobile shoppers. The company has attracted some large retailers, such as Target Corp, to its online marketplace, while developing mobile shopping technology for other retailers such as Macy’s Inc.

 EBay’s “shoppable windows” are an extension of the shift to mobile shopping, according to Steve Yankovich, head of the company’s Innovation and New Ventures group, which developed the technology.

 “This extends the boundary of the store. Suddenly the physical store, by virtue of online technology, extends to any space that’s interesting to use,” Yankovich said.

For Fifth & Pacific, the windows will help launch its new Kate Spade Saturday brand without opening new physical stores, at least initially, according to Chief Executive William McComb.

 However, the company also plans to use the technology in existing stores of its other brands, such as Juicy Couture and Kate Spade New York, he added.

 “This gives us the ability to produce more from our retail space,” McComb said. “My nickname for it is the Wall as a Mall.”

 McComb said he is considering putting shoppable windows in small Juicy Couture stores that will offer about 200 different shoes to buy.

 The company may also use the windows in Kate Spade New York stores to sell home furnishings, bedding, linens and towels.

 “We would never be able to fit all those products in a store in the traditional way,” McComb said. “These things would typically require an extra 10,000 square feet of store space. But through partnerships like this eBay one we could do this through stores that are 2,000 square feet.”

This is not all that new, and I still wonder about privacy and usability issues. It’s a one month thing so clearly the retailer is not going all in on this and probably allowing eBay to prove out the concept and share in the results. I wonder about the spontaneity of these kinds of buys, and how many people will do this as opposed to ordering off a tablet or laptop at work or home when they have time to search and compare.

That’s why you test this stuff.

Leave a comment