BrainTrust Query: What Will It Be Like to Shop with Google Glass?
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is an excerpt from a current article from Insight-Driven Retailing Blog.
ConAgra Foods, makers of Healthy Choice and Marie Callender’s meals, has created a video to show what the future of shopping may look like from behind Google Glass. What is pictured is clearly not possible today, but is within the realm of possibility for the near future.
The video shows two women, Shana and Jen, going through a normal day of shopping using Google Glass. The women start by reading their RSS news feeds in the morning with the device, forming and following through on a to-do list, text messaging and using video chat with the device. At the grocery store, Google Glass provides a store map aligned to their shopping lists, virtually tags the store’s aisles by category, and shows food ratings and reviews on specific food items.
![[Image: Shopping with Google Glass]](/public/images/discussions/16664/google-glass-still.jpg)
I was annoyed they chose to follow two people instead of just one. I assume they did it to illustrate the conversation between the women, but it distracts from the overall shopping theme. If the conversation was that important, it would have been better to ask for product advice. I was more impressed with the voice response than the augmented reality aspects. Being able to direct commands to Glass vs. people in the room is tough — usually you need to preface commands with a keyword or press a button.
Being able to overlay text on products is pretty tough as well. Today, you’d need to use a barcode or marker of some sort because image recognition is just too unreliable, especially when all the products look similar. At best, you can count the number of facing items and possibly recognize the brands.
Checkout was certainly fast! I was surprised they didn’t have to blink Morse Code for their PINs. All in all, I thought most of what they accomplished would have worked well on their smartphones without Glass. It certainly has me thinking about the future.
It would have been funny to see one of the women run into an end-cap because spam blocked her vision. Maybe next time.
Discussion Questions
What do you think of the potential of Google Glass and other wearable technologies as a shopping tool? How will such technology enhance and/or complicate shopping experience? What questions still need to be answered around wearable technologies?
It may put me in the flat earth society, but I can’t count all the reasons these are wrong for humanity, much less a retail environment.
Are we as a species crying out for even more distraction, more invasive technology, more disconnection from human contact? This video sums it up pretty well.
Google Glass and other technologies continue to empower consumers by providing easy access to information. Whether Glass becomes widely adopted or not, it pushes the envelope of easy, instant access to information: Information to educate, compare and expedite retail experiences.
There are numerous types of wearable technology that will be coming into the marketplace within the coming years. They are more intuitive to use and give consumers hands-free access to the Internet. Someday in the not too distant future, handheld phones will seem like encumbrances.
Sure beats having to pull out the smartphone to answer calls, check off to-do lists and look at appointments! I think the more we can integrate these technologies into our daily routine rather than have to carry around a “device,” the easier it is to be productive and stay connected.
Not all new shopping tools are panaceas. While Google Glass will intrigue millions of people with its advanced technology, it could well modify what the shopping experience was initially created to be.
Today it’s wearable technology and tomorrow we will probably expect some tool to determine what we really want to buy so we won’t even have to think or make human contact.
We live in a magical age fueled by great inventive technology where the tool is value higher than the touch. Isn’t there still some room for relaxed and uninhibited contact with humans in an old general store, in super centers and their successors?
Hold my Google Glass—at least, for now.
Ah but what will manufacturers and retailers do when fewer consumers are tempted by impulse buys? And how come these women are so very busy doing what they do that they are somehow unable to find time to cook? Or be with their friends and families. Their whole day seems to have been taken up with getting ready for a party. Maybe living/shopping with Glass is what takes up their time.
Wait…are these women actually talking to their Google Glass? Chalk me up as someone who’s already annoyed when people have loud cellphone conversations in public. This seems like it would be an added layer of annoying-ness. Plus, if you want to see the nutrition information on that box of chicken pot pie, wouldn’t you just turn it over?
There are retailers that are currently enhancing the characteristics of their inventory files to allow for mapping and enhanced self-checkout using software developed for smartphone data collection and site GPS interaction. Adding program extensions and device drivers to expand the software capabilities to include an interactive heads up device is not at all far reaching.
There are still practicality issues that are the cause for delayed introduction for public use. Included are hardware real estate and footprints (size and shapes) along with electromagnet and radio frequency interference(s) (static noise and crosstalk) as well as early device weight and appearance concerns, but these issues are collectively passing with time.
What is strange is the limited perception we see of what may be on the horizon. Most of the visionaries see the “heads up displays” as intelligent audio visual spectacles. I’m not so sure that all that will be needed, let alone desired by the public. I see improvements to include contact lenses and invisible hearing aids with secure bidirectional communications to a pocket IT device many times more secure and powerful than today’s smartphones. Why not think even smaller… implants anyone?
I suspect the actual “Google Glass” will be a transitional product, but consumers having perfect information transparency (from a variety of first and third party sources) and seemless integration of digital into the analog world are inevitable.
Having access to “everything knowable” about a product as you are adding it to your cart in the grocery store will be as common, as using your smartphone to find the nearest Startbucks is today.
Retailers or brands that are dependent on lack of consumer awareness (price obfuscation, etc…) are in big trouble.
-Jason “Retailgeek” Goldberg
Much space has been given to the wonderfulness of replacing a phone with Google Glass. As someone who has worn eyeglasses for many years, I can tell you that those who think wearing Google Glass is the ultimate, think again.
If you already wear glasses then they would either have to be worn over your glasses (what a fashion statement that would make!) or they would need to be prescription lenses. If you think the cost of replacing a phone is high, wait until to see the cost of a pair of eye glasses. That would mean that as you eyesight changes, you would incur the cost of replacing them. Are you going to have two pairs—one for inside and a separate pair of sunglasses?
Interesting tech—yes. Will I be giving up my phone for them? No.
This video calls attention to an interesting point: who controls the content delivered to wearable technologies? Given how personal the interface is, how much control are users going to give to content providers to add information to their user interface? What is the monetization model for the glasses and bandwidth? For retailers, does entering the store with Google Glass and using the in-store WiFi the way to get permission to insert content to the Google Glass? Lots of food for thought….
The poll results for this question are very interesting. It appears as if we are either on the far-left or far-right of the augmented reality shopping experience.
Technology will be able to enhance the shopping experience similar to how the web has today. It will be able to create a true omni-channel experience for multi-channel retailers. The most significant possibility will be recommendations while shopping. Goggle shopping may be able to record a user’s preferences and display recommendations that they may be able to try while looking at the actual product. Additionally, real-time, context-relevant promotions will soon be able to utilize big data at real time to gain customer share of wallet.
Wearable technologies will surely find their niche but I’m still not on board with Glass. Distraction is one thing, but in-your-face distraction is just too much.
Can you imagine constantly having words and pictures in your face while you’re driving or anything else that requires concentration?
Access to more and more information in better and better ways is coming our way, no doubt, but let’s not put away the drawing board just yet.
It is a good effort to stir our thinking about the future. However, I think it is heavily over-balanced with cognition in shopping, when HUGE amounts of the process are subconscious, and happen instinctively and habitually, not by thinking them through. (See Neale Martin, “Habit: The 95% of Behavior Marketers Ignore.” To me, this is the most serious flaw that is like an albatross around the necks of a huge share of those thinking about this stuff. This will lead to a massive waste of resources going down dead-end alleys.
One specific example of this is the way-finding app, which seems to be widely expected to be a GREAT addition to the shopping trip. I’m very doubtful, but maybe. I’m quite certain that actual way-finding apps with the most advanced development, probably in MediaCart, didn’t make much of a difference. Obviously, that’s not the only factor.
Even though everyone is a shopper, we have documented MANY times that shoppers do not know what and how they shop themselves, much less how other people do this. As to the rest, I heartily agree with David Dorf’s comment: “All in all, I thought most of what they accomplished would have worked well on their smartphones without Glass.”
I do think Google Glass opens doors that MAY be astounding. And getting the “smart phone screen” head mounted MAY be a huge and useful advance. However, I think the “interstitial sales” being driven by Catalina Mobile is THE proper way to go, whether driven by the smart phone alone, or enhanced by Google Glass. (See “‘Googling’ the Store.“)
Well, there you have it; some people really love this and some really hate it, and I agree with them…both.
As an aside, I don’t think that having popups appear in your visual field while you ride your trail bike—natch!—along city streets is a very good idea. Hopefully you can either turn them off, or instruct Glass to autodial 911 after you’ve run into an open door.
Rather than answering the question, I have to ask if this is technology looking for a solution? Map my walk through the grocery store? That qualifies as intense techno-overkill of an experience that should otherwise be low stress and maybe even relaxing.
One promising element of Google Glass is recognition of the nutritional information. I would like to be able to scan a display case and be able to quickly identify the product with optimal nutritional mix according to my goals. Weight loss? Low cholestoral? Supporting calorie needs during intense training? Make that easy for me and I might think about the technology in a different light.
In a society of “heads-down” texters, Google Glass represents a “heads-up” alternative. Think of the Heads Up Displays (HUD) in automobiles and military aircraft. Unfortunately, in this context GG is simply a distraction and, conceivably, a dangerous one.
Even without the aid of electronic devices, I’ve always been astounded by the general public’s lack of awareness of what’s going on around them. Folks who stop at the top of escalators or just inside the automatic door at a supermarket. Those who are unaware of the traffic around them when driving. Etc. You know what I mean.
When my dad taught me to drive, one thing he emphasized was my responsibility to other drivers around me. I wasn’t to drive as if isolated, but more as a member of a school of fish. Those days are long gone, of course, with the many ways in which drivers today cocoon themselves inside their vehicles. The same principle applies to pedestrians. Crowds on the street, in airport concourses, and at sporting events used to ebb and flow around each other in choreographed, give-and-take movement. Not any more. Our smartphones tend to cocoon us as pedestrians as well, bumping into or impeding those around us.
GG will only be a short-term status symbol, much like bag phones once were. If I were a mugger, GG would represent a “tag” to identify easy targets.
Google Glass is a solution looking for a problem. Everything it is trying to accomplish can easily be achieved on a smartphone, with added benefits! This is stretching the limits on our existing paradigm, but it doesn’t create a need. There is not a need for this product now, or in the near future.
The potential is related to how clever retailers are at weaving user experiences that seamlessly work with wearable devices (glasses or watches.) It will happen in time.
Shoppers in stores that sell complicated items will probably value greater information (high involvement), and brands who sell consumer goods, will probably try to find a way to complicate their product—how long might that video be: 15 seconds? 30 seconds? more? I guess that raises a question: how will we design, produce and maintain the added information needed to support a healthy virtual reality?
Another possibility, Glass makes it real easy to connect to your friends via Google+ – Glass might be a great tool to enable social shopping (I heard that Facebook is getting out of the phone business)
How about a concierge service? Are there voice recognition verbs or commands you can trademark that relates to your brand?
Glass can be a great tool for gathering information, but no one knows the video is running and that might be the problem or question that needs to be addressed, namely: the privacy of the individuals or businesses that are being filmed via Glass.
There is so much: grocery/shopping lists, wish lists, checkout, advice, information, alerts—the potential is there, it’s early—but then again, this is a fast follower industry.
While the video makes everything look seamless, the most compelling element is also the one that I think will be the most difficult to achieve: speed. Specifically, it would require significant upgrades in WiFi and/or network speed to process the labels on the foods as quickly as shown in the video. As for the interface, I do not see significant advantages of glasses over a smartphone—other than that users may not run into lampposts as often from texting while walking! Ultimately, I will ultimately select whichever form factor and service are the fastest and most user-friendly.
Conceptually, the video shows what’s possible—and most of it is already in play. The comments about all this being doable on a smartphone are correct.
It’s useful to break the conversation into 2 parts:
– the information and tools that are being presented, and
– how the information is being delivered.
For the first part, a shopper can easily be provided a menu of tools they want to use to assist with their shopping (nutritional information, routes through the stores, personalized offers…) and turn off the ones they don’t want to use.
For the second part, it can be through the glasses or smartphones or even some other device. Judging by how many people have smartphones and use them to assist with shopping, it’s a good bet that the usage will climb even more.
As for the glasses, at this point they’re more curiosities than tools but things change fast. (A friend of mine is now skiing with googles that have a heads-up-display. That’s not for me, but it does show that people will use them.)
As an aside, I went to a new “beta” store in Seattle today, Hointer. Shoppers use the Hointer app to scan the barcode on the jeans or shirts, put their size into the app and are directed to a numbered changing room. The clothes are automatically delivered through a chute into the room (seemingly by someone on the other side of the wall). For those clothes that don’t work, they’re dropped back through another chute and automatically removed from the app. Checkout is a wall kiosk where you punch in your changing room number, slide your credit card and you’re done.
I’m still digesting the experience. It was pleasant, but don’t yet know if it’s really solving a problem I have or if it’s just gimmicky. It may be solving a problem the store has. 🙂
All in all, there are some interesting changes happening in retail. There will be lots of experiments and the shoppers will ultimately chose what they want.