MILWAUKEE _ The store, that basic building block of commerce, is emerging as a high-tech laboratory.
All sorts of things are bubbling up _ from exotica such as holograms and virtual reality to more-prosaic but potentially more-useful technology _ as legacy retailers seek to merge their physical outposts with the online world.
The transformation has chains making major investments, and Kohl's Corp., headquartered in suburban Milwaukee, is no exception.
In 2013, the retailer to middle America's moms opened a technology center near San Jose, Calif., with a staff of a little more than 30. Today, some 200 people work there on e-commerce, mobile applications and farther-out experiments like holographic displays using water vapor, or a "digital hanger" that, when a blouse is removed, triggers a nearby screen showing suggested coordinating items.
This sort of testing has become widespread in retail, where department stores and even big-box discounters struggle with sluggish sales and warily watch the growth of online giant Amazon.
Target is evaluating inventory-taking robots, operating a showcase store for home technology, and exploring new ideas in retail through an alliance with highly regarded startup accelerator Techstars.
Home-improvement chain Lowe's is using virtual-reality equipment to help shoppers envision the results of remodeling projects.
Macy's is testing an artificial intelligence tool from IBM Watson to answer shopper's questions, and has fitted its department stores with signal-emitting "beacons" that sense the presence of nearby customers with smartphones and can ping them with messages or offers.
The quest to blend brick-and-mortar with online shopping has spawned a rash of industry buzzwords. There's the ubiquitous "omni-channel," and lots of talk of making shopping "seamless" and "frictionless." Some even figuratively crunch the physical store with digital commerce and declare that retail is going "phygital."
The payoff for the many initiatives, however, remains uncertain. Much of the experimentation amounts to hunting in the dark, said Doug Stephens, founder of Toronto-based consultancy Retail Prophet.
"That's precisely it," Stephens said. "Companies are saying we need to go to trial with beacons, or we need to go to trial with artificial intelligence, or big data. They're starting with the answer. What they haven't determined is, what's the question."
