Technologies

Amazon Has a Real-World Fitting Room, and It Makes Me Want to Shop

Commentary: Amazon’s concept clothing store eliminates a lot of the awkwardness of shopping.

I hate shopping for clothes. Shopping online means never really knowing if that shirt or those pants will fit. But going into the store means, well, physically going to a mall. It also means awkward moments in a fitting room where I need to get the attention of a clerk to bring me a different size or color. Often I don’t even bother, and I often go years between buying new pants.

Yet here I was at the Americana at Brand in Glendale, California, the weekend before Christmas, doing a bit of last-minute holiday shopping with my family. Mostly out of curiosity and some cynicism, I stepped inside Amazon Style, the online retail giant’s concept clothing store, and actually found myself having a fun time.

By merging its online shopping experience with a revamped, high-tech fitting room, it made me actually want to spend more time looking at clothes. For once, I didn’t feel the awkwardness or rushed anxiety that comes with trying things on in a changing room. This store is just one of two in the world (the other being in Columbus, Ohio), but I hope this is less an experiment and more the way all retailers start to think about their clothes shopping experience.

Amazon’s forays in the brick-and-mortar world have been varied and, at times, puzzling. There are the fully automated Amazon Go stores, where you grab an item and are automatically charged when you leave. Amazon also has its own supermarket concept which sits alongside its chain of Whole Foods Markets. Then there were the bookstores and pop-up shops, which the company shuttered this year.

Amazon declined to comment on its future plans for the Amazon Style store.

Like Amazon’s other stores, the key to the experience lies in its shopping app. At first glance, Amazon Style looks like any other clothing shop, with a few knick-knacks in the front and sections for men and women’s clothing.

But upon closer inspection, there are some subtle differences. Each article of clothing appears once – there are no different sizes. The prices are the same as what you’d pay online, although there are discounts if you spend more. Flanking one side of the store are a row of fitting rooms – with more rooms taking up the entire second floor.

It’s those fitting rooms where Amazon Style really sets itself apart. Rather than randomly find an empty room, I use the app to scan a few articles of clothing that I want to try, and tell it that I want to «start a room.» An employee then gathered the selections and put them in a fitting room. After about seven minutes, the app notified me that one was ready and directed me to a specific fitting room number, which I unlocked using my app.

Once inside, I saw the various shirts and jackets I scanned hanging on a rack or neatly folded on top of the shelf below. In addition, there were a few extra items added based on what Amazon thought I might like. Curiously, there was a Calvin Klein shirt on top of the pile, a «sponsored item» that was essentially a pop-up ad come to life (I didn’t bother to try it on).

On the wall to my right was a large touchscreen that displayed my selections and offered recommendations for other items I might like. I could also request different sizes and styles and have them delivered to my fitting room.

Rather than have a store clerk knock on my door and hand me the clothes, the items are delivered through the closet to the right of the clothes rack. It takes a few minutes, but when the items are ready, the closet door locks and a red light flashes. Inside, the back of the closet opens up, allowing an Amazon Style employee to hang the new clothes. Once the red light goes off, I open the door and there they are.

The touchscreen and the fitting room take the best parts of the physical shopping experience and the online and mash them into an effective hybrid. It’s so simple, yet removes so much of the hassle from the shopping experience. I came into the store on a whim, but left with a white Adidas jumper.

It actually has me looking forward to the next time I need a new pair of pants. Maybe in 2024?

Technologies

Verum Messenger: Don’t follow the future. Define it

In a world where information defines influence, Verum Messenger is building a new architecture of digital communication — intelligent, secure, and ready for tomorrow. Here, technology serves not limitations, but possibilities.

Not being part of change. Leading it. Verum Messenger — the future that speaks first.

Technologies

Verum Finance: Stop Spending Months Opening a Bank Account

Stop spending months trying to open a bank account.

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Open it — and use it.

The future of finance and communication is already here.
Verum — when freedom matters more than banking rules.

Technologies

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal