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Ask IH: Clothing store IoT hangers?

As the Internet continues to put pressure on retail clothing stores, they are stuck in a predicament that could be hard to solve. I was brainstorming ways to help retail advance unscathed against Internet retailers.

Hangers with integrated LED strips located right under the hook. These hangers are connected to the "mainframe" of the store via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi (more expensive and less energy efficient). There will be a few touchscreen locations around the store. Any customer could walk up to it and search for something specific they are looking for, i.e. "Red Flannel Sweaters". The touchscreen software would check all of the connected hangers if they match the description, and when the user selects a specific LED color, those hangers light up.

Example:

I walk into the store and I am looking for a medium blue t-shirt made of cotton. I approach the touchscreen and insert my query, it will show me all available items that match. I can select all or specific items. Finally I select an LED color, purple. Now if I look around the store, all of my items will have a purple LED glowing on it. I can go check them out, try them on, buy them, etc.

This could help encourage people to visit stores since they can easily find what they are looking for. They can try it on right on the spot, and don't need to wait for shipping (which is fast nowadays any way but still sometimes takes awhile).

What's your opinion?

EDIT: I know about the technology limitations with LEDs, batteries, and bluetooth. Just looking for feedback.

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    Hey @tuccinator

    This is a well thought out idea, I go shopping and hate when I cant find what I am looking for, something like this would certainly help. Maybe you could add analytics to the solution. Try with smaller stores/boutiques to understand the issues and fix it before approaching the larger brands.

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    Sounds very cool form a tech point of view, but merchants most likely want to encourage people to browse stores around.

    Maybe a tech-savvy brand would be down?

    This can also be achieved with ebeacons/microlocation.

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      Well the system could still recommend other pieces of clothing that may go with their chosen ones. So it would still be possible to upsell.

      So if someone searched for Black Dress, it would show necklaces, bracelets, high heels that are also available in the store.