E-commerce players are using virtual reality as a tool to stay ahead of competition. For shoppers, it means a more immersive shopping experience and for the firms, lower returns and more insights
Shopaholics, rejoice! Besides offering a multitude of websites, brands and products at your fingertips, e-commerce platforms are now making shopping a more interesting and intriguing experience. With the onset of virtual reality (VR), online shopping is set to become not only seamless but also more engaging.
Raagaleena Sripada, senior marketing manager, BigBasket, says VR allows for a virtual simulation of reality. “With VR, the purpose of shopping online will shift from a product to an experience.”
Unlike shopping at offline stores or malls that allow consumers to touch-and-feel the products and make more convincing purchases, a good number of which are impulsive, e-shopping is straightforward, planned and done with a checklist - especially when it concerns categories such as staples, groceries, personal care, home care. And despite all the conveniences of home delivery and the wide variety of product choices, e-shopping turns out to be a mechanical exercise, feel experts, rather than “an experience to cherish.”
“The last barrier to be breached for e-commerce to be the prime sales mode is the product experience. This is one area that traditional retail holds as its main USP (unique selling point). With VR, brands and e-tailers would be able to provide an alternate, immersive world where potential customers could experience the product in their own unique way,” says Vikas Lachhwani, co-founder of personal care brand MCaffeine.
For example, VR would let a customer not only experience how a dress would look when worn but also convey how that dress could look when worn for special occasions like a party or an outdoor setting, says Lachhwani. Or when buying a hair care product such as shampoo, VR systems could scan the hair and scalp in real-time and simulate the effects of the shampoo on it. “It can change the idea of try-before-you-buy,” says Lachhwani.
Experts say a seamless e-shopping experience involves the five steps of discovery, trial, purchase, delivery and return. And VR effectively addresses all these steps.
Harsh Shah, co-founder of Fynd, an e-platform for fashion, says, “VR allows customers to discover products easily from a personalised feed as per the browsing history. The virtual trial rooms let customers try out the product. With VR, there is a certain ease with regards to payments and delivery, and since it lets customers virtually try the product, the chances of return are low.”
According to Sripada, VR also enables better decision-making, “As customers can experience life-size imagery and closely inspect a product, the experience is almost akin to shopping at a store.” Moreover, for e-tailers, VR would be a good source of data. “It will come with rich data on what customers are viewing, how much time they spend on one item versus another, how long it takes them to add a product to the cart, etc. This will enable us to understand customers better and create more personalised shopping situations,” says Sripada.
VR would imply a huge positive for the online shopping industry. RedSeer Consulting predicts the online shopping in India to reach $28.5 billion in terms of gross merchandise value by the end of this year, up from $17.8 billion in 2017.
E-commerce brands are lapping up the VR opportunity in an aggressive manner to stay ahead of competition and entice more consumers to their platforms.
According to market intelligence firm Tractica, global spends on VR are estimated to be $9.2 billion by 2021.
“For us at BigBasket, VR at this stage means better product discovery, faster navigation and the power to subtly influence shopping behaviour. We are already exploring this and are in the initial stages of piloting VR for grocery shopping as a context,” says Sripada.
At Fynd, says Shah, they would implement a VR trial room on their app. “Experts say augmented reality (AR) is the next big technology that can transform e-shopping. And so are voice assistants, chatbots, drones; all of which will accelerate the end-to-end experience of e-shopping.”
NEW POSSIBILITIES
- VR would let a customer not only experience how a dress would look when worn but also convey how that dress could look when worn for special occasions
- When buying a hair-care product such as shampoo, VR systems could scan the hair and scalp in real-time and simulate the effects of the shampoo on it
- VR allows customers to discover products easily from a personalised feed as per the browsing history. Since it lets customers virtually try the product, the chances of return are low
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "Virtual reality")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}