SmartStores

Imagine shopping using a virtual shopping mall on the Web via your computer, smartphone, or TV, where the products you order are really coming from a dull looking warehouse that lacks all the gloss and decorum of the virtual shopping mall.

It could look something like this:

Taking this further into the future, my guess is that when this type of service is mainstream, the next generation’s spin on it will be to make it easier to shop by skipping some of the tech that makes it look real. The reason being that many will not be familiar with real stores and thus will not care for the way they look. Instead, they will invent innovative and novel ways to buy things that are not necessarily related to real world shopping. In the meantime, this real interface is important because that is what this generation is use to.

Perhaps incorporating shopping into games might also work. If generation Web are use to gaming, then they could shop while inside a game or virtual world using a virtual avatar.