Window shopping is now retail reality

The phrase "window shopping" was never meant to be taken so literally. But New Yorkers whose attention is caught by the displays at one of Ralph Lauren's Manhattan stores can now buy clothes without entering the premises, using a touch-screen system on the window.

In a final defeat for those who might wish to limit their impulse purchases by wandering the streets after closing time, the holographic display, projected onto the window, invites passers-by to buy a selection of tennis clothing 24 hours a day.

Polo Ralph Lauren's senior vice-president for marketing, David Lauren, said the idea had been inspired by Steven Spielberg's film Minority Report, a dystopian nightmare of a society in which computer surveillance reaches deep inside people's brains. "I really wanted to find a way of making that amazing technology a retail reality," he said, claiming the scheme was "reinventing the concept of shopping any time".

In the film, holographic advertisements recognized you and personally targeted offers while you walked down the street.

Tags: retail, marketing, ads, SF