Towards a Smart Town Centre: an integrated approach of real and digital worlds

This paper is an attempt to develop a new way to overcome the impoverishment of town centre retailers. From the combination of physical and digital elements, town centre retailers can develop multidimensional experiences for people that living the town centre. By welcoming the challenge to create multidimensional experiences, traditional shops will be able to integrate digital commerce and digital solutions to create interactive experiences where passers-by can interact with content using simple hand gestures and natural movements, browse product catalogues, navigate shops’ websites, and download files and transfer them directly to their smartphones. From literature analysis, a consensus has emerged that the Internet use and digital strategies are not being exploited fully as tools able to revitalize town centres and create vibrant streets offering a multidimensional experience. Thus, this work will provide a model of a smart town centre by combining physical and digital elements in revitalizing a town centre.