Will Game Consoles Reshape The Way We Shop Over The Next 5 Years?
As many of you know this week was CES and many new, cool gadgets were released including 3DTV, 4G and Project Natal. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 team has been cooking up a new hands free controller device called Natal that is slated to revolutionize the console experience. Unlike the Wii, and PS3 the Natal does not require a remote of any kind and instead your body becomes the remote. As you’ll see in the video below shopping was one of the interesting applications demoed outside of just gaming for Natal:
Not only is Natal a very cool concept, it also helps to solve a few problems many online shoppers experience as well as encourages community based shopping.
Sizing & Fit Problems Solved
There are a few issues with shopping online if you haven’t bought from a store before. Fit and look. Natal solves both of these problems by mapping your body and matching it with the appropriate size online. In addition to ensuring a perfect fit, Natal helps you pick the perfect look by allowing you to try on an outfit and see how it looks in a 360 view on your own body.
Recommended By A Friend
Another cool concept in the video is the ability for your friends to suggest clothes for certain occasions as well as build outfits. This provides the opportunity for retailers to upload their catalogs and allow shoppers to pick and chose outfits and share them. Also with Xbox360′s recent addition of Facebook to the console’s offering I can see some pretty interesting opportunities here for community based recommendations.
With a user base of over 39M users, the Xbox360 console is morphing into a family entertainment device that holds some great promise for some amazing shopping experiences. What do you think about Natal? Would you use it to shop? What would you like to see in a shopping experience on a console? Comment below or tweet at us @strandsrecs.
Here’s a sneak peek at what Natal will look like when its released later this year:
