NEWS

Next Retailing 2019, a special session of Digital Signage Japan (DSJ) addressing the future of retail, was held at Makuhari Messe convention center on June 13. Soh Masuko, senior manager of the Future Merchant Design Laboratory(FMDL) at Rakuten, facilitated the exciting event, and Go Akiyama of Played Co., Ltd. was invited as a guest speaker to hold a session titled “Next Retailing 2019”.

The two companies have introduced the benefits of online shopping to eliminate the inconvenience of going offline (real stores) and suggest a more satisfying shopping experience. They also introduced the cutting-edge research they are conducting. FMDL has been working on Hitoke, a system for visualizing product popularity and reviews, a VR remote customer service system, and by Played, K∀RT3 Garden (Karte Garden), a VR marketing tool that visualizes users’ online shopping activities.

In concluding the session, Masuko expressed that “we want to diversify the combination of online and offline, and delve deep to create a new customer experience.”