3 questions to ... Dr. Bernhardt Blüthner, Salt Solutions

These days digital and personal services need to work hand in hand. This is also evident in intelligent dressing rooms as presented at the EuroCIS by Salt Solutions for example. Dr. Bernhardt Blüthner of SALT Solutions is excited to see the great interest of trade show visitors and looks ahead to EuroShop 2017.

Dr. Blüthner, your virtual dressing room recently celebrated its first appearance at the EuroCIS trade fair. What were the reactions to your innovation?

Our alexa ePOS virtual dressing room proved to be a real eye catcher at the EuroCIS trade fair. Many visitors immediately tested the concept and filled an intuitive shopping cart. Virtual dressing rooms have been a hotly debated topic for quite some time. This year marked the first time, several market ready solutions were being presented.

Thanks to its user interface and easy connectivity with other essential systems, our virtual dressing room has clearly set itself apart from the competition. Why is this so important for retail? Because service is the main focus to wow customers in the retail store by providing a shopping experience with new solutions.

What makes your system so unique?

The advantage of our system is that it enables first cost effective steps towards in-store-digitization that offer consumers a real benefit. The application framework alexa UI, which we developed, is the foundation for our virtual dressing room. It generates user interfaces using the new HTML5 standard that are workable on all devices with HTML5 compatible browsers.

Data integration is achieved by integrating various data sources without the need for tedious interfaces, for example, integrating online stores and inventory management. The complete solution remains very flexible: changes to user interfaces can be accomplished simply by adding new configurations without additional programming efforts.

Looking ahead to next year’s EuroShop trade fair: what will happen in the digital solutions market in the retail industry?

Finally, things are looking up in retail. Until now, everybody seemed to be waiting for others to make a move to minimize risks before launching their own attempts. Nobody wants to make expensive revisions to potentially bad investments. Having said that, retail inevitably will need to undergo a learning phase of several years. After all, digitization almost appears to be a disruption.

Each commercial enterprise needs to – also as it pertains to its own regular clientele – follow its very own digital path. It is better to start now with solutions that facilitate first steps and consistently readjust things instead of one day – just like last year’s collection – find yourself being out-of-date.

Interview: Natascha Mörs, EuroCIS-tradefair.com