He opened the store of the future in Prague. The scanner changed legs, advising the robot with purchases
He opened a “store of the future” in the Czech Republic. No mannequins, exposed dresses or polished pairs of shoes. Not even shelves. The first impression leads to the idea that it is an electronics store. The passing senior really thinks so. Inside, expect forty tablets, screen-lined walls, a talking robot and foot scanners for customers.
The store opened in one of the key locations of the Nový Smíchov shopping center, where the store of the Czech electrical retailer Datart used to be. He has now replaced the stone shop of the Polish footwear brand eobuv.cz and fashion modivo.cz.
We believe that this is the future of business.
It brings a modern concept that connects internet and traditional shopping in the fashion industry, where it is not very common yet. “We believe that this is the future of business,” says Konrad Jezierski, president of Eobuv.cz.
Customers order 100,000 types of clothing items from more than five hundred brands exclusively using tablets from stock offers. At the moment you choose, the employees in the background of the store have three minutes to get the goods and the customer can try it out.
What the customer does not see is reminiscent of a warehouse of Internet companies such as Amazon, in a miniature edition. The order arrives, the worker runs for the goods on the shelf and sends them mainly on the treadmill.
The tablets are also in nine test booths. The customer does not come out of them, but the selected goods are pushed into the wardrobe of the door on the other side by the staff. It then applies to the classic cash register, where the operator will bring the goods to him.
Based on the success of this business, we will decide on further expansion.
The biggest novelty that many fashion retailers are talking about, but few have put it into practice so far, are foot scanners. “We create a 3D model of the legs, which you can save and link to an account on the eobuv.cz e-shop. Based on that, we can recommend the shoes that fit you best, “explained the director. The customer must log in to the scanner using a telephone number.
The store cannot do without service, it is rather the opposite. On an area of 1,800 square meters employed 80 people. In the autumn, he wants to start free delivery of goods in Prague within two hours.
Scientists who do not know how to buy, will be advised by the staff or the humanoid robot Pepper, which has already been discovered in the Czech Republic, for example, at the Hotel Pyramida in Břevnov, Prague.
A similar, only much smaller futuristic store is already operated by the eobuwie.pl group in Poland. “Based on the success of this business, we will decide on further expansion. We are already looking for another location for such a store, “Jezierski added, adding that it has found its customers in Poland.
Eobuv is one of the leading players in the domestic internet fashion market. Its competitors are mainly German players Zalando and O vás. In Poland, since 2018, it has also been rapidly gaining ground in traditional retail. It has 25 stone shops. The Modivo clothing retailer has one so far.
The Czechia is a priority market for the Polish group eobuwie.pl, which also includes the CCC active shoe chain in the Czech Republic. In 2014, the eobuv brand opened its first foreign e-shop in the Czech Republic, and the current store is the first stone shop of the entire group abroad.
In the financial year 2020/2021, the eobuwie.pl group earned 2.5 zloty producers (approximately 14 billion crowns). In the following years, very fast growth up to twice the turnover.
More than 31 percent of the company’s shares are held by one of the richest Poles, Dariusz Milek, who after the fall of communism began selling Milek brand shoes and in 1999 founded the CCC chain. The billionaire, who was ranked fourth by Forbes magazine in 2015 in the ranking of the richest Poles, also does business in technology and real estate. Over 55 percent of the shares in the shoe group are held by small investors.