Transform Retail Experience by Integrating Virtual Reality for Customer Satisfaction
Embracing the digital age, eCommerce is booming with online shoppers making up around 18% of all retail sales. To create a satisfying online shopping experience, retailers need advanced tools, and virtual reality (VR) is one of their best bets.
But what is VR in retail? In simple terms, it's technology that simulates real-world scenarios through hardware (headsets) and software (3D applications) for shoppers and retail staff. While headsets can be purchased online, software is usually developed by professional VR application development companies.
Here are some exciting ways VR can transform retail:
- Virtual Shopping Malls: Peek into a digital version of a store or chain of stores, explore brands without leaving home, and save time and energy. For instance, the 3D virtual shopping center, VI Mall, offers multiple department stores based in Malaysia and a virtual cinema.
- Product Configurators: Personalize your purchases by selecting design and functionality options through an interactive app, like IKEA's kitchen configurator on HTC Vive.VR Store
- Virtual Store Tours: Take a guided or self-paced exploration of a store and its products, with detailed information and product trials. Our company created an app for Magrabi, an eyewear company, featuring a realistic 3D representation of an actual store with Google Cardboard compatibility.Web store
- Product Simulation and Preview: Explore products in detail without layering digital elements over your surroundings, like Vera Bradley's simulated environment for previewing their products on Google Daydream.
While VR in retail primarily focuses on the customer experience, there are also benefits for businesses:
Benefits of virtual reality in retail:
- VR stores can be accessed anywhere, anytime
- A pressure-free environment to explore
- Unique interactions with a product are possible
- The VR store experience can also serve as a valuable reference for employees
Limitations of virtual reality in retail
- Usually impossible to make purchases
- Clothing and accessories can't be tried on physically
- Top-notch headsets are expensive and inaccessible to most consumers
- Immersive Training: Equip employees with Oculus Go headsets for custom applications to strengthen their skills, such as Walmart's cashier and management training programs.
- Marketing Tool: Generate buzz with flashy VR experiences showcasing your products, like Ford's "City of Tomorrow" VR experience at an auto show.
- Virtual Showrooms: Present your inventory in the best light without the need for physical visits, such as Asics' 3D shoe fashion virtual showroom.
As technology evolves, VR shopping assistants might become standard, offering personalized recommendations, guiding customers through their shopping journey, and helping make informed decisions without leaving home.
Benefits of a web store:
- Supports numerous media types (photos, video, apps, etc.)
- Users can easily make purchases, contact support
- Accessible on most devices (mobile, PC, etc.)
- Supports numerous analytic features for additional insights about customers
Web store limitations:
- Demonstrating product scale/size can be difficult
- Hard to keep users engaged
- Visibility requires constant optimization and marketing
In conclusion, VR in retail brings tangible benefits to both customers and businesses by enhancing shopping experiences, promoting immersive product demonstrations, providing personalized shopping experiences, and driving sustainable retail practices. To leverage the power of VR, retailers must tackle challenges like high implementation costs, technological complexity, customer accessibility, limited product interaction, data privacy concerns, content development, and internet connectivity issues. With targeted solutions, retailers can create impactful virtual shopping experiences, positioning themselves at the forefront of innovation.
Conclusion
Web stores are a good place to tell about your product and sell it, while VR stores are great for showing it off and letting people feel it (almost). Virtual reality in retail also provides unique avenues for improving brand awareness and making business processes (like training) more effective.
- In the digital age, e-commerce is thriving, with online shoppers accounting for approximately 18% of all retail sales.
- To enhance the online shopping experience, retailers are turning to virtual reality (VR) as a promising solution.
- VR in retail is technology that simulates real-world scenarios through hardware and software, offering shoppers and retail staff immersive and interactive experiences.
- Virtual Shopping Malls are digital versions of stores or chains, allowing customers to browse brands without leaving home.
- Product Configurators are interactive apps that let shoppers personalize their purchases by selecting design and functionality options.
- VR Store Tours provide detailed information and product trials, offering a self-paced exploration of a store and its products.
- While VR primarily focuses on customer experience, there are benefits for businesses, such as immersive training for employees, a marketing tool, and virtual showrooms.
- In finance, retail, lifestyle, gadgets, and technology industries, VR solutions can transform shopping experiences by offering personalized recommendations, guiding customers, and providing a pressure-free environment.
- However, challenges like high implementation costs, technological complexity, customer accessibility, limited product interaction, data privacy concerns, content development, and internet connectivity issues must be addressed to fully leverage the power of VR in retail.