VR Platforms Provide Metaverse Style Experiences to Online Shopping

 

 

As consumers continue to explore virtual shopping in the metaverse, the two companies pave the way for shoppers with platforms that make e-commerce even more exciting by bringing virtual try-ons to reality in 3D virtual showrooms and rooms.

Emperia, a company that creates virtual shopping experiences for brands, has seen increased engagement using virtual reality (VR) technology that lets customers try on products like lipstick and clothing.

With these features, Emperia saw a +73% increase in conversion rate, +92% in engagement time, and a 75% increase in clicks to try. Emperia's brand customers are experiencing an ROI of 459% and engagement in their showrooms for at least 14 minutes.

Appropriately, an augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) platform for apparel e-commerce creates a 3D body image using a mobile app to give shoppers a more accurate view of how the garment fits them. How does it fit with the avatar's body image?

The company's goals for the new shopping platform were to achieve a 20% increase in conversions, which provided at least a 50% increase in sales. The gains so far have exceeded these markers.

Perfitly is seeing a 30% drop in profits with a 10% inventory drop. Its current deployments have exceeded corporate targets. On average, the shopping platform reduced profits by 67% (from 28% to 10%) and increased conversions by 80% (from 4% to 7.2%).

Raghav Sharma, consultant and co-founder of Perfectly, said, “Perfectly's push for a Metaverse-style shopping experience came with the realization that traditional assets were overwhelming the apparel retail industry due to shoppers' issues with clothing fit. are spending about 30% of line revenue.” told the E-Commerce Times.

Changing Online Shopping Reality

Emperia CEO Olga Dogadkina spent nearly seven years in fashion, from retail to wholesale to owner. His constant encounter with all brands was how much they struggled with different efforts on experiences.

Physical stores today are all about customer service, product discovery, and getting more information about the brand. But online shopping is a page full of lists.

"Shoppers go through 15 pages of these products and by then, they never want to look at another product or piece of clothing again. If we've made online shopping more elegant and more user-friendly, wouldn't that be great?" How about sitting at home and enjoying a beautiful shopping experience?" He told the E-Commerce Times.

Emperia's solution attempts to do just that. It allows buyers to visually learn more about the product and brand. Virtual showrooms give customers an understanding of the brand's story and create the kind of experience they get in a physical store.

 

"So that was kind of the whole beginning of where the platform came from," he said.

It is a platform that enables brands to create virtual environments to reflect their brand. This allows them to step into the metaverse and move towards the newest version of today's e-commerce.

Brands can continuously manage all the products and content that go with the ad, so it becomes a new channel. Dogadkina explained that the process has been integrated into their existing e-commerce platform to continue customer engagement in sales and conversions.

No Special Gear is Required

Both virtual platform designs do not require traders or users to own special equipment. Virtual showrooms and 3D try-on rooms do not require the same hardware experience as playing a VR/AR game.

Consumers shop in a virtual store whose experience is embedded directly into the website's visual display. Dogadkina noted that buyers only need mobile access or a standard web browser.

"It becomes part of the existing ecosystem of the brand," he said.

Today's online retail experience is becoming more and more tailored to better virtual shopping engagement with customers. While Emperia focuses on a virtual showroom experience, Perfectly emphasizes an enhanced virtual fitting room experience.

Better Virtual Engagement

"There are a lot of virtual fitting rooms out there. They mostly fit into one of two categories. A size estimator is where they're taking measurements and creating a size chart for comparison. So, If you're a size six in that brand, you should be a size eight in that other brand based on your measurements,” Sharma explains as a general practice.

The second type, Sharma explained, are visualizers. This process takes a flat image of the garment and overlays it onto an image that approximates the dimensions entered by the buyer.

"In this approach there is no real interaction between the buyer's body and the material properties of the garment," he said.

Perfitly's platform is AI-powered to make shopper engagement more like a real fitting room experience. The results lead to better understanding of how materials respond to specific body shapes and movements.

More Accurate Tryouts

The process begins with the buyer creating their avatar for the fitting room. Upload a few personal photos or enter specific measurements. This allows the individual to see how each garment will fit and look on their unique body.

According to Perfitly, the e-garment creation of select clothing products is "e-stitched" to create a 3D replica that is 99% accurate to each physical garment. Virtual garments include all fabric properties such as density, weight, stiffness, stretch and friction.

From an initial size suggestion, shoppers can pan their avatar up and down, zoom, and rotate 360° to create the fit they want.

 

Size recommendations reflect AI analysis of buyer's body images or measurements provided. Once a shopper clicks the 'Try it on' button, they can click on the size adjustment to see how the fit changes.

Perfectly's video demo shows a customer avatar wearing a selected item of clothing. The animation showed the result of resizing elements based on the properties of the fabric.

For example, modifying the chest measurement on a closer look shows how the shirt stretches or sags at the buttonholes and waistline. Returning to the AI ​​recommended size showed no shrinkage or reduction.

Shoppers get an in-store fitting room experience in Perfectly's virtual space try-on platform. This experience keeps shoppers confident and happy with their online purchases. In turn, according to Sharma, this translates into higher turnover, lower profits, higher customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Dogadkina cautioned that with this young emerging technology, retail and marketing adopters need to move slowly. "I think the key is to take it step by step rather than step by step because there's so much noise, and it's so confusing," he said.

Barriers to Adoption

A major hurdle is that brands typically cannot manage these platforms themselves with virtual experiences. Therefore, it will always be an external company that will set up the space and then change the product whenever it needs to move anything into its virtual environment, Dogadkina explained.

Emperia's Artemis platform enables brands to update merchandise and furniture decor in real time without relying on anyone else. This is important for a store in Metaverse because products need to be updated regularly.

Brands also need to understand the difference between the two distinct platforms. A virtual store experience is about engagement, navigating the space, and creating brand discovery and conversion channels.

A virtual try-on lets people actually interact with the product. It increases engagement. Different platforms enable engagement in different ways to create virtual trials. Each solution depends on the type of retail product involved.