VIRTUAL REALITY FOR RETAIL

The digital age has left to an abundance of new merchants who tribe on selling online directly to the consumer. Retailers begin to focus on creating a cohesive experience and technology has been vital in attracting online shoppers trough engaging particularly trough augmented reality. Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real world environment whose elements augmented by a computer generated sensory input such as sound, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called computer mediated reality in which a view of reality is modified by a computer. Augmented reality is allowing retailers to offer more personal interactive experience that will that will change the way you shop forever.

As early as 2014 VR was making huge waves in the fashion world when London Fashion week offered users a front row view of the catwalk with 360 degree stream.More recently Balenciaga's autumn winter 2016 show was broadcast in virtual reality while Hussein Chalayan released a panoramic video of his show.

In recent years there was a considerable success and is now, by and large, an integral part of our life style. In fact in 2015 online shopping giant Amazon eclipsed the world largest retailers in term of valuation. However, with the increasing popularity around virtual reality this scenario is expected to change. Virtual reality provides the users with an immersive experience, usually trough the help of a VR headset. At the outlets of Tommy Hildiger you can try a VR head set and watch a 360 degree runway show or go on virtual carnival cruise. NARS cosmetic the famous french company it utilized Facebook 360 to create 360 degree videos of make up tutorials that you can watch right in your Facebook news feed. Many companies are working on the development of headset that you can render projections into our reality but with advancement of AR trough smart phones and augmented reality is a real opportunity . The future of the Omni channel experience will rely heavily on Augmented reality and it is already adding more value getting shoppers to engage on retailer's mobile platforms as well as driving in-store traffic. Product description and 360 photos will no longer suffice. Mobile shopper will want and expect the ability to test products at home before buying trough augmented reality. Both online shoppers and in-store costumers wish that they could interact with a product to get a feel of how it works before heading to cashier , also augmented reality is allowing shopper to trigger animations to show how complex products like appliances or electronic work and function.