oup of former marketing executives, including Chippindale, who were looking to bridge the gap between old school luxury and the new, digitally savvy consumer. “We were getting so frustrated with the lack of digital desire the companies that we were working with were showing. Luxury was one of the slowest of the retail segments to engage with digital,” Chippindale said. Holition specialises in augmented retail, specifically for luxury retailers, and develops technologies that aim to build customer engagement instore such as 3D installations, holograms, and virtual mirrors. “Ninety per cent of the technology I see used instore is about engagement. It’s designed to enable a good conversation between a brand and a consumer, but sometimes it’s actually putting a barrier between the brand and a consumer,” Chippindale said. Holition has worked with some of the biggest luxury brands in the world including Tissot, De Beers, Boucheron, and Louis Vuitton; as well as fast fashion retailer, Uniqlo; and cosmetic brand L’Oreal. “There’s a lot of opportunity for engagement in Australia. The conversations that I have had have been around, ‘what can we put on screens?’, which is where the UK was about three or four years ago. “Screens are merely one arrow in the quiver and there are all sorts of other things you can do in a shop that brings digital into that space that’s not necessarily using screens. “There are so many stores in the UK that think they are doing technology well, but the first thing that happens when you walk into their store is that someone starts showing you an iPad, when actually you’re in the physical store and you’re surrounded by products. “An experience that blurs the real and the unreal creates a really interesting space, but when people are being forced to a look at it through a square screen it seems to me to be putting a barrier in place, which is why some of the more recent projects we have been doing have been involved with projection mapping and holograms,” Chippindale said. Chippindale says the applications created by Holition have been more a marketing benefit than sales benefit to brands, however, he believes that is starting to turn as more consumers become more familiar with experimental technologies instore. “Brands are starting to get to know how to use these tools. Technology is becoming a lot more usable, scalable, and updatable, and as consumers start to ask for them and use them more, the costs will come down and it will become more attractive to retailers.” When asked what is next in the digital space, Chippindale says, “The internet of things, and also the notion of wearable technology, there’s some interesting things happenings in that space.”