Gap’s new CEO, Art Peck, hopes to regain customers and sales in a “mobile-fueled future” which may include offering items via vending machines. In a recent interview with Fast Company, Peck discussed the relationship between physical and digital and finding a solution that works for customers. Peck hopes to make mobile the focal point of all customer interactions, so he is testing RFID-tagged clothing, interactive digital walls and vending machines.
The idea of using vending machines to dispense clothes and other retail products isn’t a new idea. At the 2013 NAMA OneShow, the idea of digital retail as the upcoming shopping experience was presented by Joanne Bethlanhmy of Cisco. In a piece of thought leadership developed for the retail industry Bethlahmy discusses digital malls as a new wave of self-service shopping that includes vending machines and micro markets.