Wednesday, 1 June 2016

Virtual reality retailing is here

Virtual reality is being tested by a number of retailers, including IKEA. Today, it's a novelty. Tomorrow, maybe mainstream?

This month, the Australian retailer Myers has teamed with eBay to open a new virtual reality department store.

From home, the store can be experienced via a special app and virtual reality headsets (such as Samsung's or the free cardboard headset distributed during this promotion). You can see it action by watching this video about the virtual reality store.

Or--an interesting twist--people were invited to reserve a space in Sydney and be amongst the first to experience virtual reality department store shopping. Since Myers has actual stores in Sydney, this part of the campaign must have been all about buzz-building.