Virtual Reality Shopping

Shopping in VR is one of those things that sounds incredibly obvious: all the convenience of Amazon, without the slightly impersonal feeling of looking at pictures on a screen. But no one seems sure what makes in-store shopping special. Is it looking at real versions of the items you’re going to buy? Is it little extras like fashion show clips? Or is it the literal feeling of being inside the building?

Retale, the deal-finding service that raised $12 million in 2015, could help us figure out the answer. The company has announced that it’s launching an Oculus Rift-based counterpart to its mobile app, set for release when the Rift goes on sale in 2016. It could also theoretically come to other platforms; Retale says the company is starting with the Rift and will “determine where to go next” once it’s launched. While a number of prototypesand concept designs have shown us what VR shopping could look like, this may be the most concrete plan yet for an actual app.

It may also be one of the weirdest, because Retale isn’t exactly a shopping tool. It’s a digital version of the weekly promotional circulars that stores like Walmart or Target hand out, using location data to find nearby stores and display sales from them. Based on the screenshots and video we’ve seen so far, Retale VR directly transplants that deal-browsing experience into the Oculus Rift, then lets users enter what it calls a “virtual showroom” to look more closely at a store’s offerings. The showrooms are officially branded, and Retale says all its major partners will be signed on to the VR app, though it’s only revealed three for now: Target, JCPenney, and Macy’s.

But you’re apparently not making purchases there. Instead, Retale directs you to a nearby retail outlet, sending a phone push notification with directions and your shopping list. Which means that you’re going to a virtual store in order to prepare for going to a real store. It’s not totally clear that this makes any sense at all, unless the showrooms are exciting in their own right or the app adds features that someone couldn’t get in the real world — like the ability to see products in different rooms or situations.

As you may know, Facebook bought Oculus back in 2014 for a cool $2 billion. This deal kick-started a VR revolution and has accelerated the worlds of AR and VR. However, Oculus has had major challenges since being acquired and has struggled to deliver products on time; Oculus delivered its Oculus Rift headset later than expected due to some logistics and production issues. However, the company is looking to reboot its VR platform with the launch of their delayed Oculus Touch controllers which were originally supposed to launch alongside the Rift VR headset.

Competitively, Touch is a must for Oculus and Facebook to increase immersion inside VR. Xbox controllers are a poor tool for VR and don’t engage the user like moving your hands around does. This helps Oculus finally reach somewhat feature parity with HTC…6 months later and for more money, which will not be lost on consumers. The good thing for Oculus is that they have developed a new way of improving VR latency through a technique called ASW (Asynchronous Space Warp) which is different from the previous technique called ATW (Asynchronous Time Warp). This allows Oculus to further reduce the performance requirement of an Oculus Rift.

Oculus teased its standalone Rift headset code, named Santa Cruz, which does not require any of the external hardware that the PC-based Rift requires. That means it doesn’t need a PC, it doesn’t need tracking cameras or any cables. It is fully self-contained and self-powered and self-tracked, much like the VR820 reference design from Qualcomm.

Last but not least, Oculus unveiled a content partnership with Walt Disney Studios to create a series of VR experiences designed to elevate both the Disney brand and the Oculus platform. Additionally, Oculus created its NextGen program which will bring workshops using Unity and hardware from their partners, AMD and Samsung, to universities to help them launch their own content creation programs. Oculus also announced it will contribute another $250 million to its content development fund to help developers create not just more content but more diverse and better quality content. VR will only be successful if there is a killer application that drives the demand towards it. Oculus is just hoping that it is able to help spark the flame of that killer app and that it happens to be on their platform with their headset.

This information from Oculus’ homepage proves once again that the possibilities with virtual reality are – somewhat – limitless. Virtual reality can, and will, explore different industries, such as retail, gaming, and now social media. Can you imagine how the world will look like in just 10 years? … Me neither.

High street retailers could be a thing of the past by 2050 as virtual reality takes over the way we shop, experts predict.

The only time we can expect to be asked “Are you being served?” is when interacting with an artificially intelligent app.

Instead, people will make all their purchases from home, trying on clothes in virtual reality changing rooms and getting advice from AI (artificial intelligence) shop assistants that know exactly how to cater for their tastes.

Online deliveries dropped into the back garden by flying robot drones will become a part of everyday life.

Experts writing in The Future Of Shopping report talk about the impact the “fourth industrial revolution” – a merging of physical, digital and biological technologies – on shopping.

They forecast:

:: Virtual reality (VR) headsets that gauge your mood in the lighting and atmosphere of a simulated store.

:: Immersive virtual experiences involving products, such as visiting a cocoa farm to watch beans being picked and processed to make chocolate.

:: AI assistants that know your interests and tastes better than you do and can pre-empt purchases. For instance, shortly before a seaside holiday, they might show you a range of swimwear.

Co-author Russell Freeman, chief technology officer at digital marketing agency Holition, said: “It’s ironic that the fashion industry is renowned for its innovation, yet the way we shop is so old fashioned. From having to use a changing room, to being offered limited space in a shop, the whole experience is generic.

“The future of shopping offers personalized experiences for people, dependent on their taste and mood and at Holition we see it as the humanizing of technology.

“Augmented reality, virtual reality, drone delivery and artificial intelligence will completely change the way we shop. It’s an exciting time – on the cusp of a revolution.”

Virtual reality shopping will be featured at The Big Bang UK Young Scientists And Engineers Fair taking place at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, in March next year.

Paul Jackson, chief executive of EngineeringUK, organizers of the Big Bang fair, said: “It is the young people studying maths and science today who will drive this ‘revolution’ in the future.

More than a third of consumers say they would shop for more products online if they were able to try them virtually using headsets, and 63 percent say they expect virtual reality to impact their shopping experiences in the future, says the Reinventing Retail 2015 Report. Virtual reality or augmented reality market is set to grow further, with previous projection by Digi-Capital saying the market could reach only $150 billion by 2020.

Most businesses are not yet ready to take advantage of the technology, according to Gartner analyst Brian Blau, speaking during the 2015 Gartner Symposium in Orlando, Florida. Blau said that virtual reality and augmented reality is not a thing that is to be ignored.

However, although virtual commerce is set to become very popular due to popularity of mobile commerce and virtual reality hardware becoming cheaper, it is not likely to completely replace e- commerce, but most of the aspects of e-commerce will surrender to virtual commerce according to Andrian Slobin, vice president and global innovation lead at SapientNitro, a Boston-based marketing agency.

This is good news for VRshopping, as we expect to roll out our new app early 2017.

 

It is a sad truth for technology enthusiasts that it’s almost the end of 2016, and we still don’t have flying cars, a moon colony or fully functional robot butlers. But there is at least one sci-fi technology that is aiming to make a breakthrough into your living room: virtual reality.

Companies big and small are betting that holiday shoppers will get the appeal of being able to pop on a headset and immerse their eyes and ears — and sometimes their hands and feet — in another world. Google, Sony, Samsung, Facebook and HTC are among the major manufacturers that have put virtual reality products, mostly for playing games, on the market in the past several months.

And retailers such as Walmart and Best Buy are building the excitement by setting up demonstration areas in their stores so consumers can get a good feel for these unfamiliar devices. This is very interesting, and it opens up for app developers, like VRshopping, and make it possible to enter the booming industry in a different way. We could potentially see app developers, or software companies pitch their idea to big retailers of firms.

For most people, this will probably be their first real opportunity to play with or experience virtual reality. What is really important here is the reaction we’ll see from consumers who walk in these stores and get educated about it for the first time.

That could make this holiday season a critical period for VR, which is trying to prove it’s not just a gimmick like some gaming trends before it. (Remember the Wii and the Kinect?) Research firm IDC estimates that consumers — particularly gamers — will snap up 9.6 million virtual reality headsets by the end of the year, spending about $2.6 billion.

Gamers are an obvious key market to watch, but so are those looking to use the virtual reality headsets for a family purchase, to replace screen time spent together on the computer to share funny videos or websites, or watching television.

Greg Hall, Walmart’s senior vice president for entertainment, said in an interview with The Washington Post that he expects that gaming will remain tech’s big draw in the near term — but people are “warming up” to virtual reality. “We like the growth,” he said. “We like VR and think it’s got some nice legs for us.”

The full potential of the virtual reality market is still quite a few years away, analysts say. And, in a reversal of the timeline that characterized technologies such as desktops, laptops and cellphones, the appetite for virtual reality is expected to start with average people buying them for their own personal use before the devices break into the business world. VRshopping believes the trend will be driven by consumer adoption through 2019, but that applications for business — including education, training and telecommuting — will start to make up the larger market share after that. VR is projected to become a $36 billion industry within the next decade.

eBay is giving Australians another high-tech way to spend their money. The e-commerce company has teamed up with Myer, a department store in the country, to launch a virtual reality shop. It can be accessed through existing headsets like Samsung Gear VR, though they also seem to be giving away 20,000 Google Cardboards called “Shopticals.” The shop contains goods sold through Myer, complete with 3D models for the top 100 items in each category. Its most interesting feature, however, is a system eBay developed called “Sight Search.”

The good news for VRshopping, is that more outlets are available to us when we launch our app next year. Check out the video below:

https://youtu.be/yAuiXhJPnr8

The volume of merchandise sold on Singles Day—the predominately Chinese event that occurred on 11.11 and is basically the invention of e-commerce giant Alibaba—was jaw-dropping. This year, in just the first two hours of the world’s biggest shopping day, sales on Alibaba platforms alone topped $7 billion. In the hours since, they have blown past last year’s total of about $14.3 billion, and reached $20 billion by the end of the day. 

For comparison’s sake, combined Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in the US in 2015 were about $13.5 billion—and keep in mind that’s across all retailers. The Singles Day figures above are just within Alibaba’s e-commerce ecosystem, which works differently than a site such as Amazon. These sales to consumers are happening on Alibaba’s site Tmall, where brands can set up their own storefront, and Taobao, a peer-to-peer site similar to eBay. Alibaba also has its main platform, which deals in wholesale.

Anxious to get a share of the sales, US fashion retailers and brands, including Macy’s, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, and Coach, are jumping into Singles Day. But a quick cash grab isn’t the only objective. Singles Day offers a way for brands to establish or build a long-term foothold in China, where the growing middle class promises years of sales ahead, and it has also become a way to play with new commerce concepts, such as virtual reality.

This year, Macy’s took part in its first Singles Day by working with Alibaba on a virtual experience. In late October, Alibaba started selling 150,000 cardboard VR headsets, similar to Google Cardboard, for 1 yuan (about $0.15) on Taobao. From Nov. 1-11, customers could use them with Taobao’s app to virtually stroll through and shop Macy’s famed New York flagship. On Singles Day itself, the discounts that help make the shopping bonanza so popular were also available in the virtual-reality shopping trip. You can watch a video showing what the experience was like below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP2SXkcMhX0

Other international brands, including Target, CostCo, and Tokyo Otaku Mode, are also doing virtual shopping experiences with Alibaba. Mike Evans, Alibaba’s president and the person in charge of the company’s international expansion, says the point goes beyond sales. He calls Singles Day “a test bed for the future of commerce,” and believes using technology to create these experiences establishes a stronger relationship with shoppers.

Expect next Singles Day to be even bigger, with even more tech-enabled shopping opportunities.

For a long period of time, the future of virtual reality in retail remained unclear. It was unclear whether or not consumers could ever shop in virtual reality or whether or not they would put on the headsets to watch brand experiences. However, the VR headset trend has really gained momentum as Samsung’s Gear VR had over 1 million active users last April. In addition, Tractica predicts that nearly 200 million headsets will be sold by 2020. That’s two-thirds of the United States population.

As people continue to adopt VR in the mainstream, many of our daily activities will be done in VR, as well. One of those activities, retail shopping, could easily make the transition. Brick and mortar retailers have already embraced online and mobile outlets. It won’t be long before we hit the next logical step: the VR outlet.

Virtual reality has been expected to hit the retail industry for some time now. In a Goldman Sachs market report, the VR retail market is expected to rise to 1.6 billion by 2025. However, a few pioneers are now beginning to see its potential.

When it comes to fashion and apparel, brands such as Topshop, Merrell, Tommy Hilfiger, Dior, and North Face have created VR experiences that have been praised by fans and company executives alike.

The excitement comes from the interest in having a virtual shopping experience. According to a study from Ericsson ConsumerLab, shopping was the top reason worldwide smartphone users were interested in VR with “seeing items in real size and form when shopping online” as the main interest according to 64 percent of respondents. When given the option of having a virtual avatar of themselves, half of the survey respondents were eager to take a “3D selfie” in order to virtually try on clothes.

In addition to clothing stores, marketplace companies are beginning to favor the idea of giving shoppers 24/7 convenient access to purchasing goods in the most appealing way. Ebay created a virtual reality app last May for Australian shoppers.

https://youtu.be/yAuiXhJPnr8

The shoppers could choose items and view them in ways that showcased their features more accurately. For example, if they wanted to buy a watch, they could see it in 3D to get a better look at its design and features. In addition, the user could use his or her gaze to scroll through the items. This eliminates the need for any handheld joysticks as users can quickly scroll through using the speed of their eyes. In addition, the gaze control feature presents retailers with very valuable information as they can track exactly where the customer is looking.

With Ebay leading the charge in virtual reality shopping, or “v-commerce,” perhaps other giants like Amazon and Walmart will follow suit. Consumer reactions towards VR tend to be very positive, as two out of three consumers say that they would be interested in virtual shopping. With such optimism surrounding VR shopping experiences, this may be the jolt that the retail industry needs to excite customers some more, and set the path for v-commerce.

The internet has had a radical impact on the way we shop, taking us beyond the traditional store and into a world where we choose what we buy by scrolling through images of the products that are offered.

But the traditional retail space could be set to return through the medium of virtual reality, thanks to a virtual store concept in development by New York-based startup VRshopping.

The idea is to develop a real-time immersive shopping experience, where customers can walk though virtual shops, examine virtual versions of real-life products and make purchases like they would in the real world.

We plan to change the online shopping beyond the current “drag and drop to your cart” style.

This said, we want to create an immersive experience to enable consumers to enjoy online shopping just the way they would do in the real-life stores.

With claimed support for Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive and Project Morpheus, VRshopping is presenting itself as a retail experience that consumers would be able to access simply by sitting on their sofa and put on a headset.

This means consumers will be able to just put on the virtual goggles and do all those things they would normally do in the real stores, such as interact with shop assistants, try on the clothes, interact with other visitors and walk around – all this from their living room.

It is early days, and there is no demo available, but VRshopping is still working on the platform and gaining investment through equity-based crowdfunding.

 

The VR world is still fairly new, and a lot is happening in that area right now. We can now experience a virtual world, which is rapidly expanding, from virtually anywhere. The user can see more, do more, and go even further into that virtual world. I want to take the virtual experience to the next level, just like e-commerce took the use of the internet to the next level.

What if you could walk through the entire department store and browse through the endless racks of clothes from the comfort of your own house? What if you could interact with other virtual shoppers, pick your items, and pay for them just as you would if you physically went shopping? This will now soon be possible!