Virtual reality shopping is becoming a greater interest among retailers in the coming year, as the panoramic technology based on video gaming is seen as a way for customers to enjoy e-commerce and shopping all in one.
Developers are experimenting on this idea, using existing devices such as Google's Cardboard and Facebook's Oculus Rift as the mode of entry to a virtual shopping store.
Marketing agency SapientNitro is set to introduce its virtual shopping technology at the Cannes Lions marketing industry conference this week in partnership with luxury boutique The Line.
The company will use a Samsung Gear VR headset equipped with a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phone. Viewers can walk around the store and fix their hotspots to approach furnishings. They then can hear a description through headphones placed over the headset, see the cost, and explore different angles. A tap of the headset adds the product to a virtual shopping cart, Reuters reported.
Adrian Slobin, global innovation lead at SapientNitro, admits that the technology is still in its infancy, but they aim to release the consumer headset by next year.
Retailers are yet to comment if they will be opening a virtual storefront. Right now they are to observe how the technology will fare in the future.
"People are still going to want to physically buy something in a store, but virtual reality is the experience where they can envisage (the item), and use it more as a planning tool than a purchasing tool," Sanjay Mistry, director of architecture at Unity, a software company used by VR developers to create experiences, told Reuters.
