Future of shopping - Imagination of shopping in 2030
(Blog entry for eBay contest - Future of Shopping in 2030)
Hystricid vowed to himself that he will somehow make his
wedding anniversary the most memorable one. He is married to Ereth 4 years now and being a Porcupine with a shorter lifespan, he was wondering whether he will be
alive for his next anniversary.
- Those days, selecting a favourite Mobile or
Tablet was not that easy. One has to read lot of reviews, take opinions from friends etc before zeroing in on the right choice. But now, the ebay app loaded in Ereth’s mobile was able to make patterns out of her mobile usage, analyse the features she frequently used and suggested the best mobile model that was available. Since her health condition doesn’t allow her to use Wi-fi, the model best known for its FG (Future generation) capability was suggested. It even kept track of their family bank balance to suggest which mobile was available for their budget. Thanks to social media linkage, reviews of friends and friends of friends were automatically considered for such suggestion.
- For shopping Fashion items these days, they
couldn’t even think of going to an showroom or shop, checking sizes or using the trial room. Both Hystricid & Ereth had their profile stored in ebay site whereby on a click of a button, they could see how they look in a particular outfit. The info of clothes previously tried (soft try!!) was stored and it was used to suggest latest trending fashion. So, they go to ebay site, choose a dress, see how they look in that, make custom changes in colour, design etc and just order online. Images can also be posted in social media sites to take opinions of friends before ordering an item. Whats more, ebay site also came with the feature of auto size determination which was collected based on the data captured during annual medical checkup.
- When they set up their new house last year, they
had to purchase quite a lot of Audio & home Entertainment devices. But for ebay, they would have really gone mad. The design made by their architect was fed into ebay site which was used to consolidate the options into a handful few. Based on the house size, colours chosen, wood work, construction material etc, all the devices were suggested viz., LED TV, home theatre, audio, video etc. Even the gaming console was chosen based on their daughter’s age and ebay was thoughful in offering games that a girl will like. To top all of these, ebay was very useful in selecting the security system that was required for the risk level persistent in their locality. The motto of ebay was simple – tell me how, where & what your home is, we’ll take care of the rest..
- Cutest part of ebay was they hadn’t need to
worry about replacing furniture, kitchenware or other Home appliances. Once these home & living items become aged, ebay gets an automatic trigger and will approach its customers with possible replacement choices. Same was the case with music instruments (provided you originally bought one) and items like lamps, fans etc. Even the well-educated Ereth used to wonder as to how ebay gets info about fused light or broken piano or the need for a new fitness instrument. ebay used to know about the abnormality even before the household members. Later she realized that ebay had invested a lot in technology & communication, tied up with medical stores etc that they were able to retain their customers even amidst heavy competition.
- When so much technological advancements being
possible in all these items, it was so simple even for a dumb mind like
Hystricid to understand about trends in shopping Data storage items. It was just some fifteen years back that concepts like Cloud, SaaS were kicking on. Ebay became the pioneer shopping giant to cash on that and it has helped the whole world both in terms of savings as well as containing e-wastes. The storage of almost all possible systems were so interconnected such that more than 90% of the data storage devices that got produced was being consumed without much wastage. In simple words, one never need to worry about data storage, they can use some memory available somewhere in this universe, but just pay based on usage.
- All kudos to eBay in making Jewellery and diamond items available to all. Ebay learnt that there were only 2 ways of making a product affordable – increase supply or reduce wastage in its cost of sales. Since supply was an external factor, ebay worked on reducing the costs involved in its production to consumption.By making the manufacturer directly speak with the consumer & in making the consumer decide exactly what is wanted, the cost was kept at the lowest point. The image capturing technology used for apparels was used in jewellery as well enabling Ereth & Hystricid to choose the perfect jewellery they wanted. Being socially responsible, ebay even tied up with customs authorities & the central banker in assisting them to manage their policies & regulations better. That’s why Hystricid was never worried about satisfying Ereth with her favourite jewellery as he knew ebay is the Go-to place for the best and affordable jewellery.
- In spite of various options available, Hystricid had decided
what to surprise Ereth with in this anniversary – Yup, he wanted to gift a latest and coolest camcorder. Again,
thanks to ebay’s collection of Cameras. To ensure that the buyer zeros in on the right model, ebay had the “Social media mining” utility which was very unique and a patented one. It involved consideration of 5 factors to suggest the best model – (a) usage level of shooting devices by Hystricid & Ereth, gathered from their data storage for photos & videos (b) their photo graphical abilities as seen in the quality of photos uploaded in social media (c) budget based on income and debt (d) reviews of models fitting the first 3 parameters; and (e) based on age, valentine shopping, adventure trip bookings & gynecological visits, ebay could reasonably guess forthcoming occasions and hence, could suggest a model based on that.
- It was no wonder that ebay could bring in
revolutions in the above categories which were in its core portfolio. Even shopping of Groceries became simpler with the RFID technologies & consumption capturing techniques of ebay. Just add the items to be covered under automatic replenishment and allow ebay to analyse the usage pattern. As and when the stock reaches reordering levels, at a set periodicity, the groceries will be shipped to your houses. Based on the confirmation of receipt, automatic payment will also happen to the shipper. Those days grandparents of Hystricid & Ereth used to fight about who will shop groceries, but with this technology, that activity itself was completely eliminated.
