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Hunting for clothes in busy shops can be a nightmare, while shopping online can be a bit hit-and-miss.

Now eBay has fitted futuristic 'magic mirrors' in a popular designer shop in a bid to blur the line between physical and digital shopping - and to make finding the perfect outfit more fun.

The 'connected store' in New York includes a shopping wall that shows video content to inspire customers on outfit choices. 

While interactive mirrors in the fitting rooms are used to order items and will even change the lighting so it's more flattering.

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Future of shopping? eBay has fitted futuristic 'magic mirrors' (pictured) in Rebecca Minkoff's New York shop in a bid to blur the line between shopping in a store and online and make the experience more enjoyable

The online retailer has teamed up with Rebecca Minkoff to transform her shop in SoHo into a high tech shopping hub, with shops in San Francisco and Los Angeles to follow shortly.

It features 'connected walls', which are mirrored displays showing video content designed to inspire shoppers. 

Users swipe through looks and touch the screen to ask store staff to fill dressing rooms with the clothes they like - and even order drinks.

An interactive fitting room mirror then acts like a personal stylist and suggests matching accessories to go with an item of clothing that a shopper has in the room with them. 

Shoppers can also tap the mirror to change the lighting.

The rooms use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to recognise all the items of clothing in the room and offer alternative sizes and colours that are available to buy.

Healey Cypher talks about the Rebecca Minkoff Connected Store

Interactive fitting room mirrors act like a personal stylist and can suggest matching accessories to go with an item of clothing that a shopper has in the room with them (pictured)

Steve Yankovich, Head of Innovation and New Ventures at eBay, said: 'If you bring five things into a dressing room and they don't work, you might be tempted to leave a store.

'But what if you could determine the availability of different colours and sizes and request them from associates while still in the dressing room?

'The Connected Store's fitting rooms will make that possible through smart surfaces that can even suggest entire outfits to try.'

Shoppers can mull over options by taking their selection with them in the form of images stored in a dedicated app.

It allows consumers to build personal profiles of their favourite items, which can be purchased later.

Using this technology, the shop can recognise individual customers, allowing staff to make personal recommendations, and track what people have brought.

Mr Yankovich believes that the Rebecca Minkoff store is the first step in 'big changes in retail'.

The shop features 'connected walls' (pictured) which are mirrored displays showing video content designed to inspire shoppers. Consumers swipe through looks and touch the screen to ask store staff to fill dressing rooms with the clothes they like, and even order drinks

'Displays, video and connected touch walls can make seeing what products look like in actual use much more engaging and true to life [than mannequins].'

He explained that eBay's aim is to turn a store in 'your' store

'eBay is building shopping experiences where consumers can notify a store that they are coming and the associates can have personalised choices available near a smart dressing room before they even arrive.

'These white glove experiences are going to entirely shift consumer experiences.'

Other shops have in the past experimented with technology in fitting rooms that have been used for everything from scanning a person's body to find clothes that fit, to allowing users to have their chosen items delivered to their home so they don't have to carry them.

There is also a new generation of smartphone apps that put colour-matching and 'digital stylist' options in users' hands no matter which shop they are in.

SNAP COLOURPOP APP FINDS CLOTHES AND SHOES IN THE EXACT COLOUR OF ANYTHING YOU PHOTOGRAPH 

While stores might be getting smarter, there is already a free app that lets shopper find matching clothes at different price points and in precise shades.

The Snap ColourPop iPhone app lets users search for clothes and shoes in exactly the same colour as any object or inspirational landscape of their choice.

Users of the app take a photograph of their chosen object using their smartphone camera and the app searches for clothes and accessories from 150 UK fashion retailers such as Net-a-Porter, Miss Selfridge and M&S, to find fashion items in exactly the same shade.

The Snap ColourPop iPhone app lets users search for clothes and shoes in exactly the same colour as any object or inspirational landscape of their choice. On the left, a user photographs a sweet and on the right, the app suggests a dress in the same colour that a shopper can buy instantly from one of 150 stores

It does this using a specially developed algorithm that combs through over 120,000 products in seconds – depending on your internet connection – to find an exact, or close colour match.

The app claims to match shades of colours as closely as possible to the original photo, which means it could prove a quick solution for people wanting to find perfectly matching shoes to go with the rest of their outfit, without being restricted to a single shop.

When the fashion items found by the app are displayed, they can be filtered by clothing types, such as dresses or shirts and can either be purchased immediately or saved for later in a 'wishlist' which can inform shoppers if the price of the item drops.

The app is the first commercial product to use visual search technology to help people shop and Jenny Griffiths, a 27-year-old computer scientist, believes it will change the way people buy clothes in the future.