A local mattress company has taken the concept of virtual shopping to a new level.
Located at 1004 Carson Rd., just outside of Barrie, Leva Sleep manufactures and sells adjustable beds, and recently launched its new “tech-driven, futuristic retail concept” with support from a former SpaceX engineer.
Matthew Timmins, the company’s founder and managing director, told BarrieToday they were looking for a way to combine technology that would allow customers to still have a full in-store experience while also keeping their overhead lower.
“It came down to how we can make this the coolest experience ever, so instead of just coming in and looking at a bed, it’s something that customers are really enjoying,” he said.
That “cool experience” includes a 360-degree LED screen, which sits in the middle of the showroom and acts like a Jumbotron at a sporting event, but with the added feature that it gives customers the ability to chat with an employee from anywhere in the store.
The screen runs off technology developed by Space X alum Shehroz Hussain and his new company, ProcureStack, said Timmins. Hussain also built a wireless controller that allows employees to remotely control any adjustable bed in the store, he added.
“Our team can walk anyone through a full presentation. We have two-way communication (via) a boardroom mic with our 360-degree screen,” he said.
When a customer comes into the store, staff at a different location will get an alert and can immediately come “online” to greet them.
“In the first five minutes, it’s a little bit weird, but after that, it kind of feels normal and you forget about the screen,” Timmins said.
The Barrie store is one of three locations that utilizes this new high-tech shopping experience, he added. The goal is to reduce overhead costs in order to be able to provide customers with better pricing on the product.
“One of the biggest expenses we found with retail is having staff all the time in all of these stores,” Timmins said. “Our goal is to be 30 to 50 per cent cheaper than a traditional retailer, and the only way we could do that is by keeping our overhead as low as possible, and by being the manufacturer and the retailer of a lot of our products.”
It also allows the company to maintain a variety of different store hours that can be more conducive customer’s schedules, he added.
“Sometimes people aren’t working regular 9-to-5, Monday to Friday (jobs). Some wanted to shop at 10 p.m. Some customers still aren’t even comfortable coming shopping in a traditional way,” said Timmins, adding their new “high-tech shopping experience” was simply a way for the company to find an option to better accommodate their customers.
This gives customers the flexibility to decide when they want to shop, he said.
Customers are also able to book an appointment on the company's website to come into the store outside of its “regular hours.”
Timmins acknowledges that not everybody will be keen on this particular method of shopping, preferring to instead talk to someone in person, which is still an option.
“It’s still a work in progress. I wouldn’t say we’ve figured everything out at this point, but we are doing our best to innovate and to continue to learn as we go,” he said. “We still have days where we have staff in all of our stores to be able to give that to customers … but it’s about finding that balance. It’s different, but it’s an exciting new way to shop."
