IBM’s research labs in England have been working on a new project called DIY Shopper.  The juggernaut of the computer age has teamed up with Kingfisher, a leading home improvement/DIY store in the UK and Asia, do build out a website that takes into account some of the best attributes of Web 2.0.

The new site will go well beyond the basic customer review.  It will incorporate blogs, buddy lists of in-store advisors, and notes from people doing similar products.  The content will be available in-store on handheld devices so you can refer back to the reviews and advice held in the web interface.

More importantly, IBM is blending a traditional website - DIY Shopper - with a virtual world.  Specifically, they have designed DIY Shopper to integrate with Second Life so that a shopper’s avatar is able to view materials available in store on his/her virtual house.  Let me write that again.  Products from the real world will be available in a digital, 3D format so that customers can see what they look like prior to purchase.  Here’s a screen shot:

Note the products in the bottom-left corner. 

To quote the head of police in Goonies: “Holy Mary Mother of God.  Will you look at that.”

This is the future of retail.  Kingfisher is just the start.  User-generated content is going to be pervasive throughout web-based retail experiences.  We are going to see retailers go far beyond the basic user review.  Companies will either open up their online retail experiences to outside influences - blogs, videos, buddy lists from social networks, the list goes on - or watch their competitors do it first and take the (brand) credit.

This is the future of virtual worlds.  Retailers have tried to integrate virtual shopping with real-world purchases before.  For instance, I could have gone to the American Apparel store in SL and tried on a virtual shirt that I could then buy through americanapparel.com.  Of course, AA has since shut their virtual doors.  Why?  I think it is because they were asking people to start in a virtual world and then go back to a more familiar ground - the 2-dimensional website.  Or maybe it was because people aren’t ready for virtual clothes (because it is such an emotional decision-making process) but are fine with looking at virtual drywall.

What IBM and Kingfisher are proposing is that you go to Kingfisher.com.uk, select a few products for comparison, and then link them to your virtual house in Second Life to see how they look.  That flow is more comfortable for people - or at least my intuition says so.

We’ll see what happens.  Kudos to Kingfisher and IBM for pulling out the defibrillator for SL.