Nau in Chicago: an interactive, sustainable, apparel store
September 16, 2007 by alex
I had heard about Nau before we went to Chicago and was happy when we happened to stumble upon it while walking around. The quick breakdown is that sustainability and responsibility (5% of all purchases goes to a variety of charities) runs through their whole business and they use technology (very well) to support that. Here’s a quick breakdown…
The Clothes
First of all, the clothes are all made from recycled materials and at least so far, a lot of them felt a little too “from the future” for my tastes though there were a few things we liked. For what its worth, they also were priced in the high end range.
The Card (above)
Each item of clothing is accompanied by a little, slick looking business card with an image/name of the item on the front and a barcode on the back. You’re welcome to hold onto the card as you can use the number online or hold onto it to remember something you might want to buy later, but the best way to use the card is at the kiosks in the store.
The (more info) Kiosk
You can take the card and scan it at any of the kiosks and you’ll be given more meta-information about the article of clothing you’re interested in. You can interact with the screen to see what they have in stock, see lifestyle photos of people wearing the clothing, some history of the designs, etc.
The (checkout) Kiosk
If you decide you want to buy something and you don’t need it immediately, they encourage you (with 10% off and free shipping) to swipe your card at the checkout kiosk to initiate the shopping cart process. The interface is really well executed and easy to use. You are welcome to buy something in the store though they readily admit that they don’t stock a ton of each item in an effort to cut down on packing materials, etc.
The (company info) Kiosk
In the back of the store, there are two interactive screens that let you explore all of the charitable organizations that Nau contributes to.
All in all I really liked the whole vibe they had going and I thought they were very successful in using technology to support their goal without having the place feel like The Store of Tomorrow, which is a really delicate balance that has to be struck if you don’t want to alienate the casual (read: non-techie) customer. It made me really nostalgic for some barcode-using projects at ITP. Let’s bring back the barcodes!
PS: I asked them who did the work in the store and they indicated that the interface design and the kiosks were done by Blast Radius.
Check out all the photos here.
Tags: store, technology, Thoughts
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