It is a mandate for retailers in today’s tech-savvy era to address all possible touchpoints for building a profitable and long-term relationship with their target customers. Brands are like stories to people and the more captivating a story is, the more are its chances of being preferred by the customers. It is here that experiential marketing proves its utmost relevance by adapting interactive technologies that maximise brand awareness.
Virtual showrooms are one of the best examples of experiential marketing which engage the customers through interactive experiences to build a long-lasting and emotional bond with them, hence allowing the customers to differentiate one’s products or services from others in the market and influence future purchases. These bring the retail market home for customers and allow customers to check out multiple available products before taking the decision to purchase.
Brands’ growing preference for virtual showrooms
Virtual shops give consumers the feel and experience of real-time shopping while sitting in the comfort of their houses. Once the shopper connects with the seller regarding his/her apparel choices, the seller gives an instant choice regardless of their presence. By analysing the target audience, the platform can devise the right strategy for brands/retailers to make their presence felt on social media and create awareness.
Virtual Reality (VR) enables customers to personalise the products of the brand , browse through all its product categories, be a part of its virtual journey being assisted by an automated virtual assistant or avatars. It helps companies to gain competitive advantages like reinforcing the brand image, building relationship of trust with the customers, reaching consumers throughout the globe as it is an interactive medium easily accessible online and creating a real ‘phygital’ journey wherein customers discover new collections inside the digital showroom and purchase the selected products physically from the stores.
Additionally brands can expand their reach and streamline their sales processes through virtual showrooms as one can have multiple buyers at the same time and multiple purchase orders can be prepared simultaneously which is not possible in case of a physical showroom.
In 2015, Tommy Hilfiger came up with its own virtual showroom with the goal to fight against environmental issues, climate changes recurring due to physical sample production. Through virtual showroom, the brand fully transformed its buying processes across the retail value chain and today it has seen a 65 per cent reduction in physical samples worldwide.
Italian clothing brand Diesel has developed Hyperoom, its 360˚ selling platform and virtual showroom to systematise the entire process of ordering and remote buying. OTB, Diesel’s parent company, supported in creating hyperoom and later also built its own showroom within hyperoom. This digital showroom includes 2D closeups, 360˚displays and enables closeup viewing of products as well as from a faraway distance, just as one would do in a physical store.
Obsess – diversifying options for virtual stores
Obsess, a USA-based brand, offers both VR and AR shopping, engaging customers through 360˚virtual stores and even transforming offline or pop-up stores into an interactive 360 virtual tour. Its AR shopping platform allows customers to not only compare multiple products side by side but also access additional content like videos and recommendations by brands and retailers before making a purchase decision.
Virtual stores by Obsess are created entirely on the web, eliminating the need for any special app or VR headsets. These are created by photographing the real retail store and presenting it digitally to a wider audience or by developing an entirely new virtual showroom using CGI (computer-generated imagery). Neha Singh, Founder and CEO, Obsess stated, “What we have seen from these virtual stores is that these lead to increased customer engagement, increased loyalty and increased conversion rates.”
Technology behind Virtual Showrooms
Immersive technologies like AR,VR and WebAR are used for developing virtual showrooms as they show all the objects in ultra-realistic 3D renderings or make them a part of the walkthrough experience.
AR virtual showrooms are the most common today as they help to portray the real world digitally but without the use of any specific equipment. Virtual showrooms of this type overlay information and objects of the actual world so accurately that customers don’t feel the gap between the physical and digital showroom. In case of VR virtual showrooms, these can be accessed with the help of VR headsets or smart glasses and accompanied by video and audio, these are sure to create a unique appeal, engaging customers completely within the brand’s offerings. Web virtual showrooms with WebAR technology give flexible options to those who want to opt for AR virtual showrooms but do not want to download apps for the same. These do not need browsers to be accessed but at the same time, such web experiences won’t be suitable for advanced functionalities and WebAR technology is not supported by all smartphones.
VirtuLab – digitally adaptable for every product category
VirtuLab, based in Mumbai, is one of the leading virtual showroom solution providers which supports 3D level product display with the facility of online chat agents who cater to the visitors’ needs.
“Virtual showroom enables forward thinking for brands to pivot to the next level of online shopping – experiential commerce or 3D shopping experiences. Virtual showrooms go well beyond e-commerce catalogues, transforming online shopping into a visually engaging, inspiring and life-like experience on the screen. At brand level, it is a great platform to connect and develop relationships with online customers at an emotive level. This is a key differentiator and value-add over the somewhat mundane e-commerce interface,” said Rohit Saraogi, CEO and Co-founder, VirtuLab.
It has advanced functions like Add to Cart, Live Chat, Video Calling, Chatbots, Appointment Scheduling which are 100 per cent customisable and can be installed on the brand’s existing website. “Think of the virtual showroom as a marketing and sales support tool for the brand. It acts as an interactive, immersive and exclusive environment to host customers and showcase products in the backdrop of your brand story,” explained Rohit.
Rajasthan-based YeppAR enables brands and retailers ranging from manufacturing, automobiles, fashion to textile and garment industry to use its 360˚powered virtual showroom technologies to create inspiring 3D imitations of their products and services which are also taken a notch higher through photographs, videos and other social media channels. It gives buyers the facilities of customised rooms and line sheets to scan through the entire showroom holistically as well as go through the minute details and its engaging interactive tools and accurate analytics captivate the audience completely in its immersive experience.
USA-based Abeam Consulting is known for providing immediate virtual showroom solutions using previously existent assets available on the company’s platform, on their website and other video hosting services. Besides supporting its customers in having a 360˚view of the products in the virtual stores and uploading them to a website, its VR technology also displays the actual attributes of products such as colour, size, form, giving one the absolute feel of exploring bricks-and-mortar stores.
