V-commerce: Virtual Reality Is Coming to Retail

Samsung’s Gear VR, Facebook’s Oculus Rift, HTC and Valve’s Vive: ever since the commercialization of the first VR headsets, virtual reality has been talked about a lot. Welcomed as this year’s major high tech revolution, this futuristic technology which immerses users in an interactive virtual world is the heartthrob of gamers… but not only. Alibaba, McDonald’s, IKEA: retailers are increasingly turning to virtual reality and including it in their sales strategy. This phenomenon is known as V-commerce and is about to transform the retail sector.

Virtual reality: consumers say yes!

It is no coincidence that more and more retailers are starting to use virtual reality: consumers expect them to. In 2015, even before VR became open to the general public, Walker Sands’ Future of Retail Study already revealed that 66% of buyers were interested in the concept of virtual shopping. More recently, a survey conducted this year by Greenlight VR showed that 53% of respondents would be more likely to buy from a brand which used VR than from one who does not. 41% of the 13,000 persons surveyed by the shopping centre company Westfield declared that they would be interested in using virtual reality to see what a product would look like at their home. 33% said they would be interested in using it to virtually try on clothes without having to go to the store. These numbers are promising and strongly suggest that VR has good days ahead of itself: by 2020, it should hit $120 billion.

Vcommerce: reinventing the shopping experience

For both online and brick & mortar retailers, virtual reality offers interesting development perspectives… for those who know how to use it to their advantage.

Virtual reality, a new sales channel

Such is the case of online shopping giant eBay which launched the world’s first virtual reality department store last May in partnership with Australian retailer Myer. It enables all Australians in possession of a “Shoptical” (a VR headset especially designed for the occasion) and having downloaded the mobile app to have access to a fully virtual Myer Store. They can browse through different product categories, from clothing to homewares, with more than 12,500 products available. Thanks to the Sight Search technology, they can select any item they want by simply holding their gaze on it and view it in 3D, have access to all its details (price, availability, shipping) and put it in their cart to finally buy it on the eBay app. A brand-new experience where the physical and digital worlds merge to create a complementary sales channel in the era of omnichannel retail. No more stressful shopping expeditions at the mall, gone are the uncertainties of online shopping: with virtual reality, the buying journey is fun, reassuring and effective!

Virtual reality, a buzz-creating tool

To tackle the desertion of physical stores and increase in-store traffic, numerous clothing brands use virtual reality to make a splash. In an Oxford Street shop and a 5th Avenue store, British retailer Topshop and American fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger gave their clients the opportunity to use a VR headset to view a runway show in 3D 360 degrees virtual reality. For its part, outdoor brand The North Face organized a surprising happening in one of its South Korean stores. Customers were invited to sit on a real sledge and wear an Oculus Rift to experience a dog sled race. When they took off the headset, they came face-to-face with real huskies that instantly took them on a race… through the shopping mall! A clever buzz marketing operation where virtual reality enriches the in-store experience by adding to it an emotional dimension.

Virtual reality, a projection tool

With its extravagant flower wallpaper and odd patterned floor tiles, your kitchen looks like a time machine. It is about time you gave it a makeover. But whether on online catalogs or in home decoration stores, it is always difficult to project oneself. American home improvement and appliance stores chain Lowe’s found a way to get past this stumbling block to the buying process by creating the Holoroom. Installed in 19 Lowe’s stores throughout the US, this room of a particular kind allows customers to create their dream kitchen or bathroom themselves using a tablet before viewing it in full-size 3D with an Oculus Rift. After re-creating the room they want to renovate (dimensions, layout…), customers can freely pick the best furniture, appliances, wall color and so on from the catalog of products for sale and arrange the elements as they wish. Once they are done, they can put the VR headset on and admire the result. An interesting way of encouraging customer decision-making and moving the consumer forward in the buying cycle.

At year zero of virtual reality, there a still a long way to go before this technology fully takes root. A fair amount of work remains to be done: VR experiences are often uncomfortable and unconvincing, and headsets are pricey and could still be improved. Anyhow, VR is full of promise for the retail industry, for consumers but also and especially for retailers… who really ought not to squander this opportunity!