A new kind of digital high street experience

The internet has utterly transformed the retail environment: more goods are available to more people than ever before, creating a cornucopia of choice. There have been noticeable casualties, though. One needs only look to the closure of HMV’s stores in Ireland, or the presence of bargain outlets in a locale as storied as London’s Oxford Street to see that technology hasn’t always been good for shops.

Various countries have attempted to reverse the ...