The union between fashion and tech has finally taken a major step forward. The fitting room, formerly nothing more than a heinously lit closet with a full-length mirror, can now offer useful information on the clothes you’re trying on — from pricing and sizing to accessories you may also want to check out.

Iconic fashion brand and household name Ralph Lauren is the latest to embrace high-tech fitting rooms with new “smart mirrors” from software company Oak Labs.

The Fashion industry and retailers should ​closely track  this new technology as a smart fitting room can always incite customers to buy more even if they did not plan same. Underhill, a retail consultant says, while 36% of store browsers wind up buying something, 71% of shoppers who try on clothes in the fitting room become buyers.

What exactly is a smart mirror, and is it really going to help my shopping?

After grabbing a dress and once you walk in the fitting room, the mirror recognizes exactly what item, in what size and what color, you brought in via a small RFID (Radio-frequency identification)  chip.

First, the lighting changes, then the mirror show you how many items you have and presents you with a touch screen. The interface is clear, clean, and easy to use.

The magic mirror also provide you with  the option to see what other sizes available, whether there were other color options — followed by recommended items to complete the outfit head-to-toe.If you have tried the wrong size you just need to press on the mirror to see if there was a smaller size in stock. Then the sales associate in the shop will instantly get a notification on her/his  iPad and will bring you the right size. It is much better than peeking your head out and shyly asking for a different size, right?

Stores are tapping into the significant role the often-forgotten fitting room can play in purchase decisions with a  handful of primarily upscale retailers, including Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom, are testing versions of this high-tech fitting room.

Retailers Benefits of a smart fitting room:

• An excellent way to enhance the shopping experience and make it easy to buy your products as it offers customers a way to communicate and get information in the fitting room.
• The retailer will always know where all items are. By serving the customers’ needs better: knowing what they want, having it in stock/in the right location, suggesting matching items and bringing the items to the fitting room – more sales is the obvious result.
• It is a very good idea to make it easy for the customer to skim through new items and the collections. They can find items that they didn’t see while browsing the actual store, or see the same item on a model, and like it, although they didn’t fall for it on the rack.