Add CategoryThree years in the making, Virtual Store will launch across eight Myer stores this month and give shoppers the opportunity to experience products from the Myer Market in real life.
Nearby terminals running a proprietary app will provide additional content, such as product videos and specifications, and alternative colourways and product ranges through an endless aisle.
QR codes will take shoppers directly to the product page on the Myer website to check out. This will enable Myer to track how consumers are engaging with products in-store much the same way it would be able to do online.
“Our endgame has just been achieved,” Dene Heath, Litmus Retail Group’s co-founder along with his brother Ashley, told Inside Retail.
Digitally led showrooms
Founded in 2018, Litmus Retail Group aims to bridge the gap between product discovery, which typically happens in-store, and purchase, which is increasingly occurring online.
According to the company’s website, 73 per cent of consumers first discover a new brand in-store, and 91 per cent are more likely to buy a brand online if they have physically engaged with it.
But most bricks-and-mortar stores don’t have the floor space to display all the products they stock online, and deciding which ones and how many to allocate to stores is often a high-stakes gamble. That’s where Litmus Retail Group comes in.
“We’re able to deliver a digitally led showroom. Myer can launch products from their online space into their stores, rapidly transition those products in and out, and the whole time it’s completely measurable,” Heath said.
He sees Virtual Store as being particularly useful for big and bulky items, such as exercise equipment, which take up a lot of floor space and are difficult for customers to carry out of the store, and technology products, which can quickly become outdated when new versions are released.
Each showroom can be tailored to display different products based on what is popular in that location.
While the initial rollout will focus on fitness and home office, Heath believes Virtual Store could be expanded to any product category in future.
“Luggage would work just as well,” he said.
Litmus Retail Group has installed over 300 terminals in Myer stores and uploaded over 5,000 products to the endless aisle platform, which has been seamlessly integrated with Myer Market.
Brand incubator
Since first partnering with Myer on the Litmus Lab concept in 2019, the company has introduced over 150 new tech and lifestyle brands to the Australian market. It continues to operate three kiosks in Myer Sydney City, Myer Chadstone and Myer Brisbane City.
Litmus Retail Group recently brought the same incubator approach to Myer’s fashion department through a new concept called Emerge.