Shopping isn’t merely a task anymore; it's an experience to be savoured and enjoyed. And in 2024, virtual retail is taking it to new heights. Enter the virtual store, a fusion of technology and retail that's redefining how we browse and buy. Thanks to modern immersive technologies, shoppers can now enjoy an online space where they’re not just scrolling through pictures but actually 'walking' through digital aisles, examining products as if they're right there.
These stores blend elements of e-commerce, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR), creating an immersive shopping environment that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. It's like stepping into a game where the objective is to shop in the most interactive and engaging way possible.
From trying on clothes in a virtual fitting room to seeing how furniture looks in your living room, virtual retail offers a glimpse into the future of retail—a world where shopping is limitless, personalised, and, most importantly, right at your fingertips. In this blog, we’ll discuss some of our favourite virtual stores, but first, let’s touch upon some of the challenges virtual retailers face.
Virtual Stores: The Key Challenges
Creating your own virtual store is like directing a film. Every detail counts. The first challenge is the technology itself. It needs to be cutting-edge, reliable, and user-friendly. You're crafting a world that should be easily navigable and visually appealing, otherwise how will you keep your customers engaged? Then there's the question of realism. How real do your virtual products look? This is crucial because customers need to closely inspect what they're buying, just like they would in a physical store.
Another consideration is personalisation. A virtual store should not only know what customers want but also recommend products they didn't even know they needed. This requires sophisticated data analytics capabilities (but more on that soon). Accessibility is key too. Your virtual store should be a place everyone can visit, regardless of how tech-literate they are.
Finally, it’s vital to remember the human touch. Even in the digital realm, customers need connection. Whether it's through live chat support or virtual assistants, ensuring that your customers feel valued and understood is paramount. Balancing these elements is no small feat, but get it right, and you have a virtual store that's not just a shopping platform, but an experience that keeps shoppers coming back time and again.
Big Brands Leading the Way
Virtual retail isn’t quite ubiquitous just yet, so to save you time, we’ve scoured the internet to find some of our favourite examples of branded virtual stores.
Hugo Boss
In collaboration with Reactive Reality, Hugo Boss has introduced a virtual fitting room on their website. This feature allows online shoppers to create avatars with their measurements, providing a realistic and personalised representation of how clothing would look on them. This virtual fitting room stands out by considering not just the standard size but also the customer’s body shape, making the online shopping experience more functional and inclusive.
Nike
Nike's virtual store, Nikeland, launched on Roblox at the end of 2021, offering an immersive brand experience that goes beyond shopping. In Nikeland, users can explore, browse products, and engage in interactive activities like sports games and 'the floor is lava'. This approach highlights VR's ability to transform shopping into an engaging experience where fun is (almost) as important as buying.
Lush
LUSH Cosmetics launched a highly creative virtual store, in celebration of World Bath Bomb Day in collaboration with an immersive production studio. Their virtual bathroom experience gave consumers the opportunity to explore the 3D environment in both Augmented and Virtual reality, as well as customize the bathroom decor and subsequently add products to cart to checkout at lush.com.
This experience was a fantastic example of using a virtual store to not only provide a creative-led, engaging experience for consumers but to also optimize for increase conversion and sales.
Amazon
It’s hardly surprising to hear that Amazon is cutting their teeth in the world of virtual retail. Using their “View in Your Room” feature, users can virtually place multiple furniture items in a room through their smartphone camera. This tool builds upon Amazon's 2017 offering, AR View, which enables users to place a single item in a room for a better sense of fit. The significant advancement lies in its ability to overlay high-quality images of multiple items, providing a more comprehensive view of how different pieces will look together in a space.
Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger recently took their leap into the virtual retail space, to launch a unique virtual store experience. Designed to be interoperable, it was simultaneously launched on various prominent metaverse platforms, including Decentraland, Roblox, Spatial, DressX, and Ready Player Me. This strategy allowed Tommy Hilfiger to integrate its virtual presence across multiple digital environments, offering a seamless and engaging shopping experience. By doing so, the brand not only expanded its digital footprint but also provided customers with an unparalleled opportunity to explore and shop its collections in a vividly immersive digital setting.
Burberry
One of our favourite examples of virtual retail remains Burberry’s 2021 effort. This initiative began with the creation of an interactive virtual replica of its flagship Tokyo store, offering an immersive shopping experience to global audiences. Launched in collaboration with Elle Digital Japan, the virtual store allowed shoppers to explore and purchase items from Burberry's Spring/Summer 2021 collection. Adding to the immersive experience, Burberry integrated touch points throughout the virtual store. These touchpoints provided access to styling tip films, created in collaboration with actress Elaiza Ikeda, further enriching the customer's virtual shopping journey.
Virtual Store Production
Virtual Stores and 3D environments are typically developed using frameworks such as Unity, Unreal Engine or web-based frameworks such as ThreeJS or A-Frame. There are two main areas to consider when launching a virtual store, these are:
- UX, UI and 3D Design
- Development and Analytics
The 3D design is undoubtably one of the most important areas for virtual stores, to enable brands to really bring to life the creative vision, and ensure that the virtual store is both on-brand as well as visually amazing.
If handling the UX, UI, 3D design and development is not a skillset you have in-house, then leaning on an immersive production studio to work with to create an amazing virtual store is a great approach. Immersive production studios such as Aircards, can work with in-house brand teams or agencies to design, develop and launch virtual stores to a very high-level of quality. Having worked with brands such as Macy's, Nike and Louis Vuitton, they are certainly worth considering if you're looking to partner with a studio on your next virtual store experience.
Metalitix: Taking Virtual Retail to New Heights
Metalitix revolutionises virtual store optimisation by transforming every customer interaction into valuable insights. Its advanced analytics capabilities extend beyond basic metrics, using tools like heat maps to reveal where shoppers linger, performance data for seamless store operation, and gaze tracking to identify high-engagement elements.
This comprehensive data paints a vivid picture of consumer preferences and behaviours, enabling retailers to tailor the shopping experience more personally and effectively. By analysing trends and customer preferences, Metalitix not only enhances product visibility and store layout but also anticipates future consumer patterns. This strategic use of data transforms the virtual shopping experience into a personalised, engaging journey.
If you want to take your virtual store to new heights, learn more at metalitix.com or book a demo to get started today.
