Having managed the technology solution for jeans fit clinics at Gap, I know firsthand the importance of fit to an apparel consumer. An emerging niche of online companies aim to help consumers find perfect fitting apparel. One company, venture-backed Zafu.com, has analyzed the fit of hundreds of jeans from diverse brands on thousands of women, and when a consumer plugs in her particular measurements, and style and size preferences, the site predicts, with an alleged 94% accuracy, a perfect fit. The site links to third-party sites that carry the jeans.

[thanks, Gary, for the tip!]

Ralph Lauren has an interactive window display at their store in Manhattan. It’s even possible to purchase items via the window, which has a credit card reader and on-screen keyboard. Now “window shopping” has new meaning! [thanks, David Polinchock]

For a related interactive display retail concept, click here.

PrevYou has developed and patented a virtual/real retail mechanism, which allows real-time connections between consumers and their friends via mobile and other Internet connected devices. Two potential applications are: 1) consumers could use their mobile camera to upload images to a secure website which friends or family could access, and supply real-time feedback of the product in question. 2) Retail stores could build cameras into changing areas and a shopper could model her outfit for friends or family on a retail branded website.

Another interesting changing room concept is being developed by researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic Institute of Textiles and Clothing: “An intelligent Simulator for Cross-selling & Up-selling using Smart Fitting Room & Smart Dressing Mirror.” RFID technology communicates with a system that can mix and match and suggest clothing options, which would be displayed on an interactive screen. The changing room is utterly important for influencing consumer purchasing, and has enormous untapped potential to do so much more to encourage consumer spending. [via and cool business ideas and ilya vedrashko]

When I wrote about Moving Mannequins, I thought about all kinds of possibilities, including the idea of a mobile phone remote controlled lifelike, robotic mannequin.

In that vein, LocaModa has devloped an interactive digital mannequin application, which allows consumers to customize a model’s clothes displayed on a large screen using a cell phone as a remote control. LocaModa’s technology works with any phone and any network and does not require the user to download any software.

Other StreetSurfer applications previewed by LocaModa at the Digital Retailing Expo include interactive real estate, travel agent and branded interactive games.

[Thanks, Gizmag]

In an innovative convergence ecommerce play, New York-based Entertainment Media Works launched Star Style this week, which is helmed by former CBS President Jim Rosenfield. For years, companies have paid for product placement in television and movies, but it’s a marketing strategy that’s increasing in importance, as a result of ad-skipping technology, and Star Style aims to be a central place online where viewers can purchase things they discover via television or movies. American Idol and The Real World - Key West are among the first shows featured, so you can dress like your favorite American Idol, or buy a couch from the Real World, for example.

Jerry Levin’s Knightspoint Group has proposed a takeover of Sharper Image to resuscitate the brand, which has suffered disappointing performance, in the past couple years, largely as a result of declining sales of the Ionic Breeze product, which accounts for an estimated 40% of total sales. When I was a kid, Sharper Image epitomized cool, innovative, high-tech gadgetry, and Sharper Image has lost its luster by focusing on air purifiers, nose hair clippers, jewelry cleaners, and vibrating back massagers, which hardly evoke excitement. In consumer electronics, Sharper Image branded stereos, for example, look “thumpy,” in comparison to stereos at Sony stores, for example. A couple ideas for a turnaround:

1) Introduce Bang & Olufsen inspired, innovative consumer electronic products at affordable prices under a new brand name. The cool cordless phone on the Apprentice, for example, is sold at B&O for $1,995, and Sharper Image could sell a similar product for $120. Sharper Image should invent a new brand for these products, a name that evokes quality and cool, fresh style, because I bet research would indicate that Sharper Image branded tech products don’t come close to comparing with Sony or Apple, for example, and they should.

2) Improved product mix that appeals to the Maxim crowd — more high-tech toys, cool party accessories etc. FireBox.com, for example, has an amazing selection of cool, fresh gadgets, and has a cool brand image, an image that Sharper Image should better represent. Firebox is one of U.K.’s fastest growing companies, by the way.

Sharper Image (SHRP) 2-yr share price:

The $1,195 Bang & Olufsen BeoCom 2 cordless telephone:

Seattle based Bag Borrow or Steal, which raised $8.25 million Series B funding this week, is a great example of “cross-pollination innovation.” The company utilizes the Netflix subscription model to loan a wide variety of designer bags to consumers for cost efficient enjoyment. Monthly subscription pricing depends on the quality of bags selected and ranges from $19.95 a month to $99.95 a month for the most expensive and exclusive bags in the collection. The company, founded in 2004, has several thousand members. A wide selection of jewelry and watches is coming soon.

[thanks, VentureWire]

This week’s resignation of RadioShack’s CEO David Edmondson for allegedly lying on his resume is the least of the company’s worries. RadioShack’s shares have fallen about 43 percent since the start of 2005. In the era of big box retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City, and even Wal-Mart dominating consumer electronics, how can RadioShack possibly be competitive in this sector? What is RadioShack’s competitive advantage besides offering a wide variety of hard to find batteries?

The company’s current turnaround strategy is to close between 400-700 stores, close two distribution centers, and focus on higher-margin, growth categories. Of course, focusing on higher-margin, growth categories sounds great, but that’s been the Shack’s strategy for several years!

Does anybody have any innovative ideas for how to resuscitate RadioShack? Please comment or email me. Thanks, Matt

Renowned Hollywood special effects developer Woody Lawhon today announced the launch of Moving Mannequins, a company that creates affordable, realistic mannequins for the retail industry. The extremely lifelike mannequins, which have realistic details such as skin texture and pigmentation and even eyes, also have robotic movement to emulate a real person. The company hopes to revolutionize the static mannequin industry, and assist retail organizations generate attention and excitement for their store windows and apparel displays. In the future, the company also plans to offer retail organizations the opportunity to create exact replicas of fashion models utilized in advertising.

[via PR Newswire]

The Gap is one of America’s great companies, and sales are declining, despite an innovation effort to rejuvenate the brand. I have consulted in strategy and consumer insights for Gap brand (Gap, Inc. also owns Old Navy and Banana Republic), so I have to be reasonably tempered about what I say, but I have some thoughts on Gap brand’s direction (based on publicly available information).

There was an interesting front page story in the WSJ last week about Gap and its huge initiative to renovate stores. Gap sent a whopping 20 employees around the world in search of inspiration for innovative retail concepts and although the new store design is a great improvement, chalk boards in the jeans area, friendly employees, darker floors, couches outside the dressing areas, higher quality display tables, and bold colors on the walls don’t “wow” me.

A part of Gap’s new, defining mission is to enable individuals to express their personal style. Building on this theme (William Morris and CAA, here’s an idea for you to sell to Gap) select celebrities could create their own product lines and Gap co-branded marketing campaigns, and sell their product in little boutiques within the store and online. Another idea: there could be a section on the Gap website, and computer terminals in stores, where customers can design their own t-shirts (ie pick out colors, images, text etc.) This type of democratization for creating individual style, which is facilitated by technology, is the future, and Gap should embrace it now!

Innovative store features and an “emotional” store environment will only go so far, of course. Obviously, the store’s product is number 1, and I’m not particularly in touch with the latest trends and styles, so I’m not going to talk about that. But, I can talk about its television advertising, which Gap relies heavily on to drive store traffic. The television ad spot is losing marketing power, as a result of ad skipping technology (I may be talking about innovative marketing strategies - Gap is experimenting with a viral website - watchmechange.com, for example), but Gap ads have been uninspired for years, and even hurtful to its brand image — with respect to men — and this is going to take time to change.

When I consulted for Gap, there was much discussion about how to fix the declining men’s business. Meanwhile, Sarah Jessica Parker was all over television praising the color pink, and singing about how wonderful it is to be a girl! I know many guys that agree with me in thinking that this kind of advertising does not entice us to shop at Gap! The Gap’s “singing and dancing” ads have played way too long, and I’m truly thankful that Gap is allegedly starting to move away from that.

This picture of the remodeled Stanford Shopping Center store was taken a few days ago. The outside of a store is not as important as the inside store experience, but a vibrant outside can be a magnet for traffic.

Imagine if they had billboard type video image panels above the windows in those blank white spaces on the wall. This technology may still be relatively expensive, but I’m not talking about HD plasma quality video. The displays also don’t have to be used across the entire store fleet, but just top performing stores.