eBay and Australian retailer Myer have joined forces to provide a glimpse into the future of shopping by developing and launching the world’s first virtual reality (VR) department store, which connects to the existing eBay.com.au API and allows Myer’s product range, pricing and stock information, which is updated in real time – a first for virtual reality experiences globally.
Throughout the VR experience, Australian customers can browse more than 12,500 Myer products and they can be selected and added to cart using eBay Sight Search.
From today, eBay and Myer are offering customers the opportunity to receive their own shopticals (specially designed virtual reality viewers) to start their VR shopping experience. 15,000 shopticals will be available free of charge fromhttp://www.ebay.com.au/VR.
“With the world’s first virtual reality department store, we have challenged ourselves to build an exciting and engaging experience that makes browsing and selecting products easier than ever before,” said Steve Brennen, eBay’s CMO and Senior Director of Retail Innovation.
“We’re making this technology accessible to all Australians with our giveaway of 15,000 shopticals,” Brennen said. “Their insights and feedback will be invaluable to us as we look to the future of VR and build out experiences that take retail to the next level.”
How it Works:
1. Personalise: the shopper selects their areas of interest at the beginning of the experience and the store is custom built around these needs, making the most relevant products visible first. As shoppers move through the store, the smart technology suggests other products that might be desirable or interesting, based on what the store knows about them.
2. Browse: using eBay Sight Search, the shopper views a product in the store and by holding their gaze on it, the product is elected and automatically floats towards them, with the top 100 products available to view in 3D, and more than 8000 in 2D. The shopper is able to quickly move through different departments of the store, making the shopping experience much more time effective for today’s busy consumer.
3. Research: shoppers simply lock eyes on information icons to receive full product specifications, as well as price, availability and shipping details.
4. Purchase: shoppers just hold their eyes on the ‘Add to Basket’ icon and then view the basket to review before purchasing. To complete a purchase with the shopticals, users simply:
- Remove their handset from the shopticals
- Log into eBay
- Finalise the transaction through app, desktop or tablet
To check out on a Gear VR headset, shoppers simply enter their email address and follow the prompts.
“So many branded VR experiences we see are passive 360 video. When it comes to truly interactive virtual reality experiences, the rules are still being written,” said David Loughnan, Digital Director of Traffik, which led the VR development. “The eBay VR Department Store pushes the envelope for both VR and e-commerce – not only by delivering a truly immersive shopping utility but also integrating directly with the eBay platform to develop an innovative retail channel of the future.”