Shopping with your VR glasses: is virtual reality the next step in retail?

[jrineakter]

The current rise of virtual reality (VR), after a first failed attempt in the 1990s, is impressive and promising. We are on the eve of the large-scale introduction of a new medium. A medium that can be added to the historical list of print, film, radio, television and the world wide web. Some sceptics still point to the hefty price of more than 1500 euros for an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset with accompanying PC. This price would be an absolute showstopper for large-scale adoption of virtual reality by consumers. In doing so, they ignore the lower-cost alternatives that are now widely available.


Mobile virtual reality
For less than 100 euros you can have a Gear VR headset from Samsung, which offers a convincing virtual reality experience in combination with a smartphone. Millions of people already have a Google cardboard headset, made of cardboard or a sturdy plastic version, which works surprisingly well for short-term experiences in virtual reality. While many people are waiting for the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive , virtual reality via smartphone is meanwhile making its entrance en masse among consumers .

Experience with virtual reality
Reports from Oculus and Samsung show that, contrary to analyst expectations, consumers are not so much playing virtual games, but are particularly charmed by the experiences . This costa rica telegram number list category includes virtual videos ( cinematic VR ) and photo-based virtual tours. The content ranges from journalistic productions and entertainment to travel destinations and virtual house viewings.

The keywords of a virtual experience
There is no doubt that virtual reality experiences really do add something compared to traditional media such as the world wide web. In the past year and a half I have introduced about a thousand people to such mobile, virtual reality experiences and afterwards I have always asked them what is 'different from before' in this experience. This can be summarized with the keywords 'presence' and 'emotional impact'; the feeling of actually being present in this experience. And because the virtual glasses shut you off from the here and now, the impact on the consumer is many times more powerful than any traditional medium, such as television and a movie, has ever achieved.

Because the virtual glasses cut you off from the here and now, the impact on the consumer is many times more powerful than any traditional medium, such as television and a movie, has ever achieved.

Retail
A great future for virtual reality is also predicted in the retail sector . The idea is: if you can emotionally touch the consumer, then the step for the consumer to make a purchase is only small. This idea has always been around, but with virtual reality a marketing tool has now become available that can do this better than ever before.

In the meantime, some well-known retailers have conducted the first experiments with virtual reality, but these are usually limited to further enhancing a brand image with virtual video. Media-Saturn, known in the Netherlands for MediaMarkt, is going a step further and is opening small stores in German city centres where customers can virtually shop in the gigantic range of kitchen appliances. A range that cannot be displayed in physical form in the small retail space and for which virtual reality offers a solution.

A small downtown branch of the MediaMarkt group, in which Virtual Reality is actively used in the sale of products. Photo: Einkaufserlebnis Trier.
A small downtown branch of the MediaMarkt group, where virtual reality is actively used in the sale of products. Photo: Einkaufserlebnis Trier .

Conversion
Great initiatives, but how can we use virtual reality at the consumer's home, on the couch or in a comfortable swivel chair, so that the sale of physical products actually increases? Conversion is what we want to achieve. Web shopping in virtual reality, or virtual reality shopping, can achieve this goal thanks to the more intense product experience that VR offers.

Limits
It is important to unite the specific characteristics of web shops and virtual reality. The solution is not so much to offer a virtual version of a physical shop. Last year I gained experience with this when realizing the first virtual drugstore in a co-creation with a Swedish-Dutch client. Although the test subjects experienced this shop as visually, very realistic, walking around in virtual reality does not come close to a reality experience. The announced HTC Vive, which makes it possible to physically walk around in a space of 3 by 3 meters, will not be sufficient in this respect either. The question is whether this limitation is actually relevant. I think, based on our experience, not.