eBay pops up on the high street for Christmas
Internet retailer plans pop-up store with no tills in the West End of London to cash in on smartphone shopping boom
eBay's pop-up shop in London is set to open for just five days from 1 December. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP
Internet shopping is supposed to be killing off the high street, but eBay is the latest website to announce plans for a physical outlet in the UK.
At the shop, the latest high-profile experiment in the West End of London, there will be no tills. Shoppers will instead pay using their smartphones to scan a "quick response" code on the price tag. Like barcodes they direct the phone's browser to the payment section of the eBay website.
The eBay "pop-up" shop is set to open for just five days from 1 December, the busiest window for online shopping before Christmas.
It will stock the website's 200 bestsellers, which range from House of Fraser party frocks to toys from The Entertainer, but purchases will be delivered to customers' homes. A spokesman said the store would promise "no queues, no bags, no stress".
eBay, which opened a similar store in New York this year, is cashing in on the popularity of smartphones, which are feeding a new mobile shopping culture. More than a quarter of adults and 47% of teenagers now own one and are increasingly using them to check prices and research products while walking around shops.
Technology is changing traditional patterns of shopping: Tesco's chief executive, Philip Clarke, stated this year that retail was entering a new "multichannel" era as the physical and online shopping worlds collided.
"When we talk about the future of the high street, we have to see it in this context, not put it in some silo or reserve. That's not how consumers view the world any more. Their high street, their computer, their smartphone – all these offer different ways of shopping and all are converging," he said.
Both Tesco and Ocado have trialled virtual shopping "walls" where shoppers can browse and order groceries using applications on their phones but Tesco upped the ante this week with a test of "augmented reality" in its stores.
By holding a catalogue or a product key up to webcams in the supermarket's aisles, shoppers can generate life-size 3D projections of products and read their specifications before making a purchase.
Last month House of Fraser opened a shop in Aberdeen that had no products, just free coffee and assistants with iPads. Amazon is offering collection lockers in London shopping centres so clients don't suffer missed deliveries.
Zoe Wood
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 November 2011 21.11 GMT
© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
eBay pops up on the high street for Christmas | Technology | The Guardian
Internet retailer plans pop-up store with no tills in the West End of London to cash in on smartphone shopping boom
eBay's pop-up shop in London is set to open for just five days from 1 December. Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP
Internet shopping is supposed to be killing off the high street, but eBay is the latest website to announce plans for a physical outlet in the UK.
At the shop, the latest high-profile experiment in the West End of London, there will be no tills. Shoppers will instead pay using their smartphones to scan a "quick response" code on the price tag. Like barcodes they direct the phone's browser to the payment section of the eBay website.
The eBay "pop-up" shop is set to open for just five days from 1 December, the busiest window for online shopping before Christmas.
It will stock the website's 200 bestsellers, which range from House of Fraser party frocks to toys from The Entertainer, but purchases will be delivered to customers' homes. A spokesman said the store would promise "no queues, no bags, no stress".
eBay, which opened a similar store in New York this year, is cashing in on the popularity of smartphones, which are feeding a new mobile shopping culture. More than a quarter of adults and 47% of teenagers now own one and are increasingly using them to check prices and research products while walking around shops.
Technology is changing traditional patterns of shopping: Tesco's chief executive, Philip Clarke, stated this year that retail was entering a new "multichannel" era as the physical and online shopping worlds collided.
"When we talk about the future of the high street, we have to see it in this context, not put it in some silo or reserve. That's not how consumers view the world any more. Their high street, their computer, their smartphone – all these offer different ways of shopping and all are converging," he said.
Both Tesco and Ocado have trialled virtual shopping "walls" where shoppers can browse and order groceries using applications on their phones but Tesco upped the ante this week with a test of "augmented reality" in its stores.
By holding a catalogue or a product key up to webcams in the supermarket's aisles, shoppers can generate life-size 3D projections of products and read their specifications before making a purchase.
Last month House of Fraser opened a shop in Aberdeen that had no products, just free coffee and assistants with iPads. Amazon is offering collection lockers in London shopping centres so clients don't suffer missed deliveries.
Zoe Wood
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 November 2011 21.11 GMT
© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
eBay pops up on the high street for Christmas | Technology | The Guardian
