Bridging the Omnichannel Gap with Virtual Stores
The term ‘virtual store’ has been gaining traction in the last year as innovative brands seek more effective ways to market and sell to their consumers beyond the traditional brick and mortar store and ecommerce websites.
The working definition for a ‘virtual store’ is a 3D digital environment that enables the marketing and sale of products and services. By unifying the tangible and sensory aspects of a physical ‘store’ with the interactivity, accessibility, and scale of digital, the goal is to create a shopping experience that delivers the best qualities of both digital and physical worlds.
As it became evident during Covid, over 50% of US consumers prefer to buy from the convenience of home (i), especially if they can experience the product without having to visit the store. (referenced: ‘Try it. Trust it. Buy it). With the advent of virtual stores and technologies such as augmented reality, brands can now enable consumers to virtually ‘Try before you buy’ — enabling shoppers to visualize merchandise on themselves and simulate objects within their surroundings.
From virtually applying endless shades of lipstick colors to visualizing and previewing your entire living room with a fresh coat of paint — consumer usage of virtual try-ons is growing fast and driving increased brand sales. In fact, 2 out of 3 consumers who’ve used branded AR for shopping agree that they are more likely to purchase after a branded AR experience (ii), and data has shown an increase in conversion rates of up to 90% when customers are using AR versus those that do not. (iii).
Illustrated below, while online and offline commerce channels develop and mature, we start to see a convergence of experiences and a narrowing of the omnichannel gap. This omnichannel gap is a term to represent the disconnect customers experience shopping in a brand retail store versus shopping at the brand’s website. Such disconnects relate to inconsistencies in branding, product inventory, customer service and overall tailored shopping experiences.
In order for brands to maximize relationships with customers, it is important that the offline and online channels merge seamlessly to create ongoing relationships versus one-off interactions. However, the challenge most brands face when trying to innovate while integrating new with older experiences are legacy technologies and siloed organizational structures. Rather than being encumbered by the old ways of working, brands will need to embrace a new mindset and approach in the world of 3D and virtual commerce. This entails rethinking both digital and physical environments to bring the best of both worlds together harmoniously for various customer types.
Getting started with virtual shopping experiences
We are still at the very nascent stage of virtual stores, and the concept will continue to meld and evolve along with the Metaverse.
What is most exciting about the idea of a virtual store is we have an opportunity to go beyond replicating the store aisles and think about reimagining the future of shopping in a world where anything is possible — from personalized avatars that can virtually try on your clothing to 3D product configurators that print real-time at-home merchandise, to live streaming AR-enabled video consultations with leading influencers, to NFTs that unlock access to new worlds of experience and social commerce.
Since many clients have been asking about virtual stores this past year, I wanted to share a few thoughts to keep in mind as brands and companies venture into developing virtual commerce experiences.
Planning for Success
- Value proposition: What unique benefits will users derive from their virtual commerce experience? What is the reason for the consumer to engage virtually versus other channels?
- Focus on user centric versus product centric: this is an opportunity to design a store experience around the holistic consumer’s lifestyle, mindset and goals.
- Building a virtual store experience is not merely a technology effort; it needs to be driven by a design thinking approach that leads to an experience that resonates with the target audience.
- Consider creative themes that align to specific narratives and marketing strategies (e.g. styles, passions, personalities, occasions, partners)
2. Unified Experience: How will this experience operate in unison with other brand experiences, digital marketplaces and traditional retail channels?
- Think about the user journey (across all channels) and how this experience can seamlessly advance the customer forward along their journey to meet their goals
- Rather than create an entirely new platform, consider partnering and co-developing an experience within evolving virtual social networks or environments such as Roblox, VRChat and Snap.
- Companies like Obsess, ByondXR and Matterport have been partnering with many brands to help upstart momentum in the space, as they have created platforms and toolkits focused on virtual store experiences.
- Consider omnichannel points of integration such as in-store activations, pop-ups, mobile, email and customer service.
3. Design Fidelity: How does the 3D experience environment and content reflect the values of the brand and its products and/or services?
- The level of immersion that can be achieved through 3D spatial environments depends upon the fidelity and interactivity.
- Go beyond 2D digital ad displays, embedded flat video and general merchandising to think about how you can create a truly immersive experience that resonates with each unique customer.
- 3D models and environments should be executed with craft and precision; low fidelity experiences and models often feel cartoonish and gimmicky, and fail to generate purchasing confidence.
- In some situations, more fantasy-like and imaginative environments work very well to create an overarching lifestyle or entertainment-based environment.
4. Personalization and content curation: How can you create a shopping experience designed around the consumer’s needs, goals and preferences?
- Establish a clear data strategy for implicit and explicit personalization based upon available customer profiling
- Balance aspirational content with functional content, while mapping user needs to appropriate products and services combined with a more stylistic and curated narrative.
- Determine the role of customer service, considering options such as live video integrations and/or AI chat-bot like services.
5. Communications outreach: How will you drive awareness, engagement and repeat interaction with this virtual store experience?
- Develop an omnichannel communications outreach plan considering following paid, owned and earned channels:
- Targeted media and marketing
- Search engine optimization
- Social media strategy
- CRM communications
- In-store activations or OOH
6. Measurement and KPIs: What are the learning metrics, as well as brand and business metrics you are looking to achieve, and over what time period?
- In addition to conversion and sales, other metrics to consider are brand reach and affinity, particularly for brands that are looking to expand their footprint with new audiences.
- Virtual stores are still in the initial phases of development, so I would caution about planning for huge revenue at the get-go, although this is certainly the intention over time
Lastly, to get inspiration going — here are some examples of virtual stores that run the gamut from the more traditional and photo-realistic store replications to the reimagined commerce enabled environments. We are still in the very early stages of understanding what works and what doesn’t, and which direction proves more successful for specific brand and business objectives.
Virtual Store Examples
Realism:
- https://ralphlaurenvirtualstores.com/beverly-hills/#/en_uk/women-1-1
- https://www.tumi.sg/virtual-store
- https://virtualtourguccigarden.gucci.com
- https://virtualstore.dior.com/champs-elysees/#/en-int
Imaginative / Entertainment:
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This Article is also published on Medium - https://medium.com/@rduboff/is-the-virtual-store-the-future-of-shopping-e2ce3389c2c4
End notes: (i) Raydiant study, 2021 (ii) Snap, Publicis & Alter Agents Study, 2021 (iii) Vertebrae via Shopify, 2021
For more research: about Virtual Commerce — check out: ‘Try it. Trust it. Buy it.'