The finals of the skillVM visual merchandising competition last week made me think about the best place for in-store technology in the future.

The competition, held at Olympia, saw both retailers and students create full-size window displays. And even with the small budgets they were working to, some of them managed to bring in moving parts, flatscreens, video, and clever lighting.

At the same time, last week EBay announced that it would be adding barcode scanning technology to its iPhone applications, following its purchase of barcode technology firm RedLaser.

On the face of it, these two events seem entirely unconnected, but together they highlight how the use of technology in stores is going to change in the next few years.

As consumers become more comfortable using their own devices to supplement their in-store shopping experience – whether it be a smart phone, iPad or whatever the next must-have gadget might be – so the need for retailers to provide technology such as web kiosks will diminish.

But at the same time retailers will be able to – and should – use more technology in their window displays to entice customers into store. Department stores and mobile phone retailers are the two main groups that have tried to experiment with bringing interactivity to their window displays so far.

Within a few years I hope to see more of the great content fashion, homewares and even food retailers are creating for their websites bought to life through technology in the windows of their stores.