Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are already making inroads in retail. Lowe’s, Wayfair and Design With Reach, for example, use these technologies to help customers visualize how furniture and other design changes will look in their homes. AR’s ability to bring ratings and reviews, long a staple of e-Commerce, into the brick-and-mortar environment presents an exciting prospect, according to Pano Anthos, Managing Director of XRC Labs. “Customers walk into a store and we’re blind as bats,” he said during a session at the 2017 Retail Innovation Conference. “We don’t know if the product stinks or falls apart in five minutes, or anything about where it comes from. Everyone online looks at ratings and reviews, so why not in the store? AR provides the first wave of that potential by having the digitization of ratings and reviews dropped onto your phone.” Despite these real-world use cases, opinion remains sharply divided about the ultimate value of AR and VR, as well as how much — and how quickly — retailers should invest in the technology. Members of the RetailWire BrainTrust recently debated the technologies’ merits: Art Suriano, CEO, The TSi CompanyI can see the strongest benefits of AR and VR…

With more than 9,000 store closures anticipated in 2017 and the number of retail bankruptcies already surpassing the 2016 total, the phrase “retail apocalypse” has been thrown around a lot in recent months. But while brick-and-mortar retailers of all sizes and types have had to make massive adjustments, the industry isn’t quite as close to its death bed as many would believe. The most recent RetailNext Store Performance Pulse indicated that while store traffic and sales remain in decline, these dips are less drastic than in the past. The 5.5% year-over-year traffic decline in July 2017 was retail’s lowest decline rate in 18 months, while the 5.7% year-over-year sales dip was the lowest in 14 months. And outside of three months during the past year, retailers’ in-store conversion rates — sales transactions as a percentage of traffic — have largely remained within a 0.1% to 0.5% range, in line with totals from April and May 2015.