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Retail(零售的) stores are having an identity crisis. With foot traffic falling and customers going to online stores like Amazon, many stores are looking for new ways to keep the physical shopping experience valuable. “Physical stores find themselves at a crossroads,” says Doug Stephens, retail industry futurist and author of The Retail Revival.

If storefronts want to compete with their more convenient (and usually cheaper) online alternatives, they will have to offer unique experiences worth getting off the couch for. “My expectation will be to go to the store to learn about things, to be a participant in things, to co-create, to customize the things I’m buying, and to satisfy my own needs,” Stephens says. Here are two predictions of how the retailers of tomorrow will keep us shopping.

Stephens predicts that we’ll be transported by virtual reality. The stores of the future will “be much more visual,” he says. “Technologies like virtual reality, which a lot of companies right now are sort of experimenting with, can be used to create immersive(沉浸虚拟现实式的) shopping experiences.” Outdoor clothing and equipment maker The North Face recently worked with VR company Jaunt to let shoppers at its flagship stores put on VR headsets and take a virtual tour of Yosemite National Park, or virtually rock climb alongside star athletes. After they’ve climbed down the mountains, perhaps customers will be more willing to buy some climbing equipment.

Stores will also track and identify us, says Stephens. Remember that scene from Minority Report when Tom Cruise walks into a shopping mall and all the advertisements speak directly to him and know his shopping history by scanning(扫描) his eyeballs? That’s not so far off. A company called Hoxton Analytics offers a system that can determine a shopper’s data. Instead of scanning your eyeballs, this technology works by scanning and identifying your shoes. The goal is to help companies better understand customers and traffic patterns. The company makes sure that the system “does not collect personal information, and it does not store individual photographs, nor can it recognize individuals.”