New clothing store offers high-tech approach to shopping
»Play Video
SEATTLE -- For anyone who thinks shopping for clothes should be a fast and efficient experience, an ex-Amazon executive has developed a store for you.
Nadia Shouraboura spent nine years working on supply-chain efficiency at Seattle's online giant. But even as she was building one of the most proficient shipping operations in the world, she had an idea that was stewing in her head.
"I just wanted to make shopping fast and fun," said Shaouraboura.
So the native-born Russian, armed with a PhD in mathematics from Princeton, left Amazon and invested $5 million of her own money into brand new way to shop for clothes.
That dream has now developed into a men's clothing store near Seattle's University District called Hointer. It's a combination of Amazon's online logistical efficiency and old fashion but trendy upscale brick and mortar.
"You come in, you're in, you scan and you're gone," Shaouraboura said.
Shoppers are given a choice to buys clothes the old fashion way using a salesperson, or by-passing any contact with a human at all. The store is line with many different styles of men's fashions, primarily pants. But there is one floor sample of each style.
Each item has a QR code and an embedded near-field-communications or NFC antenna embedded into the tag. Customers are encouraged to download free app from either the iTunes and Google Play app stores.
Once launched, the Hointer app automatically starts up using the phone's camera as a barcode scanner. A customer holds the phone over the QR code of the item, the app then shows all the sizes available in the store from the inventory which is out of sight of the customer.
"You don't have to dig through piles of clothes and or wonder if the size is in stock or not, the app will show your right away," Shaouraboura said.
Next comes the cool part: Once you've selected the clothes you want, in the size you want, customers click on the "try on" button. The app will assign you a fitting room that will be only your dress room during the length of your stay.
Within 30 seconds, the clothes you want to try start arriving in a bin inside your fitting room. If you don't like what you get, slide the item down another chute and automatically the unwanted item is removed from the app's shopping cart.
If you want to buy the item, each dressing room is outfitted with tablet PC that lists the items in your cart. Slide your credit card through a reader installed with the tablet and your purchase is done. You can pick up the receipt at the store's main desk or have it emailed to you.
"So what I've done is look at everything customers hate about shopping and I got rid of it," Shouraboura said.
She's not shy in saying she thinks her vision of shopping will change brick and mortar stores forever.
"There's no waiting," she said.
She won't reveal how the items show up so quickly in the fitting room, calling it "the Hointer secret." But it does involved those NFC tags sliding by readers and software that updates the store's app instantaneously. Robotics will eventually be used to streamline the process.
The store at 4th Ave NE and 45 St NE is consider a pilot store, so she and her staff of three are still working out the bugs. She hopes to open up a woman's apparel store called Hointress in the future.
Despite an occasional blimp in the software, there maybe no other clothing store where you can get in and get out so fast.
Nadia Shouraboura spent nine years working on supply-chain efficiency at Seattle's online giant. But even as she was building one of the most proficient shipping operations in the world, she had an idea that was stewing in her head.
"I just wanted to make shopping fast and fun," said Shaouraboura.
So the native-born Russian, armed with a PhD in mathematics from Princeton, left Amazon and invested $5 million of her own money into brand new way to shop for clothes.
That dream has now developed into a men's clothing store near Seattle's University District called Hointer. It's a combination of Amazon's online logistical efficiency and old fashion but trendy upscale brick and mortar.
"You come in, you're in, you scan and you're gone," Shaouraboura said.
Shoppers are given a choice to buys clothes the old fashion way using a salesperson, or by-passing any contact with a human at all. The store is line with many different styles of men's fashions, primarily pants. But there is one floor sample of each style.
Each item has a QR code and an embedded near-field-communications or NFC antenna embedded into the tag. Customers are encouraged to download free app from either the iTunes and Google Play app stores.
Once launched, the Hointer app automatically starts up using the phone's camera as a barcode scanner. A customer holds the phone over the QR code of the item, the app then shows all the sizes available in the store from the inventory which is out of sight of the customer.
"You don't have to dig through piles of clothes and or wonder if the size is in stock or not, the app will show your right away," Shaouraboura said.
Next comes the cool part: Once you've selected the clothes you want, in the size you want, customers click on the "try on" button. The app will assign you a fitting room that will be only your dress room during the length of your stay.
Within 30 seconds, the clothes you want to try start arriving in a bin inside your fitting room. If you don't like what you get, slide the item down another chute and automatically the unwanted item is removed from the app's shopping cart.
If you want to buy the item, each dressing room is outfitted with tablet PC that lists the items in your cart. Slide your credit card through a reader installed with the tablet and your purchase is done. You can pick up the receipt at the store's main desk or have it emailed to you.
"So what I've done is look at everything customers hate about shopping and I got rid of it," Shouraboura said.
She's not shy in saying she thinks her vision of shopping will change brick and mortar stores forever.
"There's no waiting," she said.
She won't reveal how the items show up so quickly in the fitting room, calling it "the Hointer secret." But it does involved those NFC tags sliding by readers and software that updates the store's app instantaneously. Robotics will eventually be used to streamline the process.
The store at 4th Ave NE and 45 St NE is consider a pilot store, so she and her staff of three are still working out the bugs. She hopes to open up a woman's apparel store called Hointress in the future.
Despite an occasional blimp in the software, there maybe no other clothing store where you can get in and get out so fast.
I hope this is a sign of things to come everywhere. Shopping for women's clothes is insane, time consuming, frustrating...
This would more likely make me want to shop at this store.
Your editor should fire you for this. The number of typos and grammar mistakes in this should make you ashamed. It's terrible!
 @Kambam Kablam I liked the "...the app will show your right away,"...
 @Kambam Kablam LOL, especially liked the 'blimp' in the software!
I guess that I won't be stepping into that store. I like the human interaction.
 @komosux Which part of "Shoppers are given a choice to buys clothes the old fashion way using a salesperson" didn't you understand?
@My_Thoughts Reading is too hard for some people.
 @komosux Pfft
Do you not realize how many people work in the retail world. You are pretty much cutting the retail workforce in half. Least you make the big bucks so you want be bothered by all the people who lose there jobs when this good but sad idea takes off. I might as well try to join. Are you hiring?Â
 @Opiophile Oh boo hoo. Lets create jobs for the sake of creating jobs. Get real...
 @Romey_Rome Consider, where is the break point at which the economy flounders because of the increasing numbers of peoples who are downsized thru automation to minimum wage jobs and no longer have any disposable income to spend on these kinds of products.
@My_Thoughts Sadly today people want things now now now and business has to evolve inorder to keep up. Its either automate or lose $$ due to the extra it takes a person to do it. Overpopulation is killing our economy.
@Romey_Rome @My_Thoughts The point is that jobless people don't go into stores and buy things. If no one buys even automation won't be necessary.
 @My_Thoughts I guess I'm in the right field then. So how much should a company spend on a  "jobs for the sake of jobs" charity project? If you don't need employees, you don't need them. There is no going back. Once you learn to do more with less, there is no going back.