Examples of VR in Retail Industry

VR in Retail Industry

Consumers now have more experimental purchasing habits and are more receptive to creative and fun shopping techniques as long as they are safe and hygienic. And to top it all off, the introduction of 5G, a high-speed and low-latency network, is gaining momentum, guaranteeing the accessibility of consistent, high-quality immersive experiences everywhere. These elements work together to create a favourable environment for developing virtual reality apps specifically for the retail industry and improving already existing VR applications.

Let's examine four VR use scenarios that can significantly alter consumer journeys and operational procedures.

Kellogg's VR Merchandising

Product merchandising is an essential marketing activity that, in both online and physical businesses, depends on customer data to be successful. Nevertheless, physical shop merchandisers typically struggle to obtain reliable intelligence, even during target group tests, due to the subtlety of the data, whereas digital retail specialists have access to a multitude of insights based on carefully observed client behaviour.

Virtual reality, when used for marketing research, can close this data gap and get rid of speculation. In-store merchandisers may precisely analyse consumer perception and purpose using headsets that track users' eye movements, and they can utilise this information to decide where to best put products in-store. Additionally, because virtual reality design is flexible, marketers may easily change the test case variables and run alternative scenarios.

Walmart's VR Staff Training

Thorough employee training is essential for business success and customer happiness, but many businesses still struggle to conduct it correctly because they become bogged down in the numerous considerations that need to be made.

For starters, product education should be continuous but not tiresome due to the constantly expanding product categories. To hone in on their soft skills and create new ones, often urgently—think of the early days of the pandemic—employees also require numerous hours of hands-on, scenario-based training in the classroom. To make matters worse, traditional classroom instruction is difficult to arrange without upsetting most students, and online courses are inaccessible to diskless workers since they work shifts and in remote places.

Virtual reality holds the potential to assist shops in overcoming these challenges and enhancing training outcomes. This technology is gaining ground as a corporate education tool across industries. A study on the efficiency of VR training in comparison to the conventional classroom and online approaches was undertaken by PwC in 2020. The findings showed that workers who receive training in a secure, lifelike immersive simulation require less time to assimilate the information and remain considerably more attentive throughout the process. Additionally, the students felt considerable more emotionally attached to the material and were much more self-assured when discussing and applying what they had learned.

Ikea's VR Showrooms

Although virtual reality showrooms, or 360-degree immersive environments meant to showcase products or services, are not a new concept, merchants previously only saw them as a high-end marketing tool and an event crowd-pleaser. Although car dealerships and high-end clothing companies provided virtual showrooms as a creative approach for buyers to examine their products, most consumers still preferred to base their judgments on in-person interactions. However, during the pandemic, the retail sector rediscovered VR showrooms as practical alternatives to in-person purchasing, which sped up their widespread adoption.

Particularly with apparel manufacturers, virtual showrooms have gained popularity. These brands now largely rely on them to hold virtual trade exhibitions, appointments with wholesalers, and media events. Between May and June of 2020, demand for holding virtual fashion events increased by 2000% on BrandLab's platform, one of the top VR showroom platforms; other vendors have seen a similar increase in demand. VR showrooms are fully prepared to give lifelike experiences at a fraction of the price of a live fashion show thanks to high-resolution 3D photos and video, superimposed product descriptions, fabric close-ups, zoom-in, and many experience customization possibilities.

Balenciaga's VR-powered promotions

Virtual reality has a unique place in the toolkit of retail marketers because of its demonstrated capacity to evoke a strong emotional response from the viewer. The past few years have seen a wide range of diverse VR-based promotion strategies, both online and offline.

These and related marketing initiatives consistently increased sales and helped spread brand recognition by enabling thorough hands-on presentations of goods and services. But today, despite their worth, the majority of in-store deployments have been limited because of health and safety issues. While stores are expected to go back to their former ways once the pandemic has subsided, the majority have switched to just offering digital consumer experiences, which has sparked the development of cutting-edge immersive advertising pathways.

Conclusion

The transition to VR training promises significant future cost reductions because, once designed, the modules scale up easily and require little maintenance and teacher involvement. Last but not least, because it only requires a headset and controllers, virtual reality (VR) is the greatest choice for setting up remote training, whether for employees located far away or teleworkers.