If I had to date myself quickly, I would describe myself as too young to remember when the Rolling Stones were young and cool, but just old enough to remember floppy disks, clipping coupons and life without cellphones. In fact, as the child of an entrepreneur I witnessed almost every iteration of car phone, bag phone, brick phone and flip phone and I remember them quite fondly. Most notably that they never really worked, but boy were they cool.

Shopping was also quite different. There was certainly no e-commerce and savvy shoppers did their homework in advance (also read: leveraged the Sunday paper). Grocery shopping was comprised of a series of coupons. Shopping for furniture or electronics was done by looking at the circulars from Sears, Wal-Mart or Radio Shack, and your major buys such as cars and homes were done in their respective sections.

In short, our access to information was grossly limited by today’s comparison and it made marketing a simpler science – albeit less measurable – but it also made our choices much more limited, which was arguably both a blessing and a curse.

E-Commerce Shifts The Buyer’s Journey

As we are all acutely aware, the emergence of e-commerce has grossly changed the way we buy.

The vast majority of consumers turn to Google for their information and they use it to often drive more than 70% of their purchase decision.

This is how the new consumer buys: they start with search, they find information on what they want, and then they turn to their friends, social communities and online experts to validate their idea of a sound purchase. Once those boxes have been checked, they will buy.

This way of buying has gone from the future of buying to the norm. The new wave of business innovation is about making the online buying experience more satisfying; specifically, expediting delivery time. In fact, just today, Amazon and Google both announced their “Same Day Delivery Service” where they offer a wide line of their products to be delivered to your door same day (drones not required).

Now, all this online buying power has certainly caused parity in the sales cycle. For B2B and B2C alike, it has created a level playing field that we may even say is tilted in favor of the consumer. Remember when you –the sales and marketing pro – knew more about your product and service than your prospects? What happened to that anyway?

However, amidst all of this change, the reports of the demise of retail have been greatly exaggerated. This has a lot to do with the impersonal nature of shopping online as well as the tough to measure human need to see, touch and feel things before they buy them. The other factor that cannot be underrated is that some people just like to shop.

With all of this in mind, retail isn’t going anywhere, so the question is: how does the buyer’s experience in retail change to more closely mimic the digital experience?

Enter the concept of the omnichannel experience – where brands make the customer experience continuous from online to offline, using not just the obvious data points from the shoppers’ engagements with the brand, but their social data and engagement as well.

A Glimpse At The Future Of The Retail Shopping Experience

Imagine you park the car in front of your favorite retail clothing store. For this example, let’s say it was Old Navy. (Who doesn’t like Old Navy?)

You step out of your car and as you walk toward the store you see a large format LCD monitor and you look at it. Unbeknownst to you, it looks back and it sees you. Based on just a glimpse, it is able to read your sentiment via facial recognition and analysis, and it concludes you are “happy.” Moreover, tell your gender, general shape and size and even make suggestions as to your style. With facial recognition software these devices will even be able to make out who you are! On top of this technologies like Apple’s iBeacon can use low power Bluetooth technology to geo-locate not just where you are but what products you are standing closest to. This is the ultimate example of geo-fencing in the physical shopping environment to maximize the shopper experience while building data points for the brands deploying this technology.

Now, based on this assessment, the monitor greets you, provides you with some specific deals that may make sense to you and even gives you the opportunity to connect your mobile device for more customized experience. What is even crazier is that this isn’t so much the future as it is the now.

Last week while attending IBM Impact I had the chance to meet with Michael Garel, Founder and CEO of Eye-Q and he told me that his company is already doing much of this. He shared with me that based on just our facial expression, stores are now able to tell our mood, our interests and are starting to even predict how much we’ll spend and what we’ll buy.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. These LCD monitor/camera combos can be placed throughout the store and can even identify specific items you are looking at and then pair you with user generated and expert reviews from top sites across the web. With a little opt-in support from your end these tools will even be able to query your friends and social networks to give you further immediate feedback on your potential purchase.

With this type of shopping experience, brands for the first time will be able to more definitively understand and align themselves to the buyer’s journey. Data points will be created for the awareness phase (becoming cognizant of products/services), the affinity phase (building trust through user generated content, expert reviews and their hands on experience) and perhaps most importantly the purchase intent phase (what finally drove the consumer to buy).

Digital Meets Physical Meets The Future Of Retail

In the future, the retail experience will closely mirror the digital one, but with the added perk of the “shopping experience.”

Now we all know that not everyone likes to shop and therefore online is a great option, but for those that want to see touch and feel while being able to learn about products, garner reviews and gain social feedback, the future may be perfectly aligned with this shopper demographic.

Perhaps for those just old enough to remember Les Wiserman’s 1990 film, “Total Recall” they can remember the scene where Arnold Schwarzenager was walking through the mall and as he passes by the screens, they change and speak to him, telling him about deals, promos and what to buy.

I think we have all seen those days coming for a while, but who knew just how close to reality that was? Now all we need is a drone to drop our morning latte from the sky and we will officially be entering the “end of days.”

Photo Credit: IFC.Com

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.