Southgate customers play dress-up

One of Edmonton’s most popular malls has a new attraction.  Southgate Centre, on 111 Street NW just north of Whitemud, has introduced an interactive display in which users use a touch screen to see how clothes look like on a mannequin.  It’s the modern way to play dress up, only digitally.

The program is called “My Virtual Look”.  Users can scroll through pictures of clothes and accessories which are available from retailers throughout the mall.  Once they find an outfit they like, they can drag the item over to a virtual mannequin to see what they look like when they’re not on a hanger.

The touch screen is 208-centimetres wide giving shoppers the big picture of what a potential outfit might look like on them.  My Virtual Look also provides an option for users to transfer the image to their phone or to social media.

In addition to the grown up clothes-play, shoppers find the new dress up display is a great way to see what new clothes are in stores without having to traipse through the entire mall.  It’s another way for people to shop, especially those mall-goers who would rather not go shopping at all.   It also brings in new customers to stores that they may not have thought of visiting.

My Virtual Look is unique to Edmonton, and was developed by a local tech company called Synced interactive at a cost of $20,000.  It will be active at Southgate showing off new spring fashions until May 22, with 15 mall retailers participating.

About 150 different items are available to virtually try on and sorry guys – it’s restricted to women’s fashion items only.  A Southgate spokesperson said they’d like to run the display in 2017 and hopefully expand the technology within the program to include men’s wear.

Southgate Centre is owned and operated by Ivanhoe Cambridge, which hopes to use My Virtual Look in some of its other 27 shopping centres.

The technology used in My Virtual Look can also be used at individual retailers, such as grocery stores so customers can find out where their favourite products are in a store.

About Southgate Centre

Located north of the Whitemud Expressway on 111 Street NW, Southgate Centre opened more than 40 years ago with just 65 stores with The Bay and Woodward’s as anchor tenants.  The Bay is still a major anchor and the mall has now grown to become the largest shopping centre on the south end of the city.

Over the years, the mall has undergone three large renovations and with expansion has tripled its original size.  Today, it’s Edmonton’s fashion destination with more than 165 stores and services.  That includes the largest Hudson’s Bay store in Edmonton.  It’s also home to Sears, Crate and Barrel, Apple, Restoration Hardware, a LEGO store, Lululemon and Michael Kors.

Southgate Centre also has a large food court, several deluxe washrooms, two levels of convenient customer parking with 4,000 parking stalls both outdoor and covered.

The mall is 8 km south of Edmonton’s downtown core and is accessible by the Southgate LRT Station on the south line.