The way people take in information, browse stores and shop has undergone a significant shift as virtual and augmented reality has entered business arena. Two-dimensional ways to reach customers have been fairly successful in past but the evolving world demands more. Businesses are now looking towards immersive technologies to retain customers by providing them a more personalized experience. Take the example of real estate where a builder shows a 3D model and another who offers a virtual tour to customers. Which one do you think would attract the customer more?
Personalizing a service or product, however, wouldn’t hold much water if the brand doesn’t use modern technologies that have been realized in the industry. Even a decade or so ago, customers were more concerned about quality and price but the new era has revealed the trend where brand experience is taking the lead. Virtual reality and augmented reality have emerged as technologies that can successfully deliver such experiences to customers.
Virtual reality offers an amazing potential in terms of consumer experience because it can impact customers in ways traditional methods cannot. We are now witnessing how virtual reality is transforming new domains of industries, including recreation, sports, education, healthcare and so many more. As VR experiences are overtaking other walks of life and offering quality experiences in different realms, it’s highly likely that customers will naturally start to gravitate towards such experiences during shopping too.
The evolution of technological world is also changing the retail industry to a large extent. All key players of market have joined the bandwagon; Google has invested more than $500 million on its Magic Leap project, Facebook has taken over Oculus, Microsoft has exhibited Hololens 2 recently in MWX 2019 and many others. The reason why everyone is moving towards VR and AR is because they have proved their worth in increasing the efficiency of a business, cutting down overall costs of marketing, providing meaningful data and detect hidden patterns from consumer analytics. It’s a win-win situation for both business and customers.
Although cynics still raise questions about virtual reality and its ability to bring favorable changes, it can be said that different industries are being transformed in radical ways with this technology. Consumer service is one of the areas that is expected to become more accessible and advanced with the use of immersive technologies. Customers expect more from the brands and virtual reality is the technology that can help them meet their demands.