Virtual reality: a bit of animation in a boring e-commerce

Virtual and augmented reality to animate e-commerce.

The big names are coming back, but it may be a little late. The sales animator, the promoter, the hawker that we appreciate so much on a busy weekend market has returned to the store. Stands and other specialized corners are flourishing and that's good. The consumer needs to find a human interaction. Virtual and augmented reality can become the solution to e-commerce that has become boring.

The alternatives of e-commerce.

For e-commerce, there are other solutions. V-commerce, avatars, chatbots, voice assistants will become a norm. Forbes, in an April 2017 article, considered that augmented reality is for the consumer, and virtual reality is for business. That's partly true.

How can we use augmented reality?

Augmented reality applications allow to find an object in a real context, a piece of furniture in a house, an electrical appliance in its environment. These applications can also simulate on the person a new textile, an accessory, a hairstyle. Augmented reality facilitates decision making and engagement. Augmented reality also allows a brand to present a new POS advertising proposal, a new technical furniture proposal, a product range in a real context (a shelf, a store or other).

Also, what are the possibilities of using virtual reality?

We can imagine more virtual reality applications linked to services applicable to B2B. Designing packaging in 3D with multiple interactions, proposing new store concepts to customers. No more paper, tomorrow packaging reviews or category reviews will be done in virtual reality. Virtual reality already has its place in industry, training, engineering, but it is less likely that virtual reality will be used in commerce, and yet it seems to meet a need of consumers. And yet in 2015 before virtual reality became widespread, with the arrival of affordable headsets, consumers were already prioritizing uses applicable to commerce. Walker Sands, Greenlight-VR studies revealed that more than 50% of consumers were interested in the concept of virtual shopping or considered a brand more attractive if it used this technology.

V-commerce, a response to consumer needs?

V commerce is an obvious response to the "gloom" offered on e-commerce sites, and when used in-store it then reveals a product's functionalities, possible range extensions, variants, accessories, to personalize one's purchase, in short... to do the job that merchants offer us in the marketplace. Want to know more about virtual reality? Download the free white paper "The contribution of 3D in retail".