The Party People aims to revamp the shopping experience with AR mirror

Just in time for Halloween, New South Wales-based party supply retailer The Party People is taking buying costumes to a whole new level by trialing an augmented reality mirror store this month, which allows customers to try on, and then buy, costumes in seconds.

Augmented reality mirrors, or smart mirrors, save shoppers from taking clothes to the nearest changeroom to physically try the items on. Instead, customers can see what they look like in different styles of clothing or costumes virtually. 

The mirror will be trailed by The Party People for three weeks after Uber, Lendlease, Shopify, StockInStore, Preezie, Starshipit, and Shopexp sponsored the Drummoyne-based retailer to do the pilot.

The Party People chief party dude Dean Salakas, who owns the business with his brother Peter, says the pilot is a world-first retail execution of a shoppable mirror and would have cost him $150,000 to do the project if not for the sponsors.

“While augmented reality mirrors are floating around, we have taken them to another level by adding checkout functionality to them, and as I understand it, this hasn’t been done anywhere in the world,” he told SmartCompany. 

“But most importantly, it is fun. Customers can transform into their favourite characters and try on different costumes or accessories using our mirror. The costume will be placed on them using augmented reality, they can then checkout on the mirror and have their shopping delivered to their home. 

“This mirror doesn’t sit inside the store, it will be in its own pop-up location or on a wall. It can be used as its own pop-up store, on dead space like a wall, in a shop window that’s closed for some literal window shopping, or even on a store under construction so people can interact or shop with a brand before it opens.”

Salakas says the mirror solves a common problem for shoppers purchasing any type of clothing: trying on multiple items is often uncomfortable and a lot of effort.

“As many customers know, going into a changing room at a store can be time-consuming and it can be tedious. Especially if you want to try on a lot of different outfits,” he says. 

“In this scenario with the mirror, you could try on 100 outfits in under 60 seconds if you wanted to. 

“It just takes away the pain of trying on a bunch of things, especially when you’re changing colours or styles. You can see how an item of clothing looks within a second using the mirror without completely undressing and then redressing again.”

Salakas says the mirror also has the potential to eliminate the three biggest costs for a retail business: staff, stock and rent.

“The opportunity is huge and it solves a major retail problem,” he says. 

“We can add a virtual assistant on the mirror to talk people through any help they need which helps with staffing. It can also be put in unused spaces and we use e-commerce fulfillment so it’s no stock requirement. But with larger sales, it would simply require incremental centralised stock to support sales.”

Salakas says while he is unsure how many costumes will be sold through the mirror, “that is what the trial is for”. 

“The whole purpose of the pilot is to learn how customers are using the mirror and how they purchase and we will see what happens afterwards,” he says. 

“I have learned in my experience with innovation, that customers are going to do things with this that I haven’t thought of yet so I am excited to see what we learn from the trial.”