Myer and Ebay launched a VR store


05/27/2016

E-commerce is one of the areas where virtual reality will open a new level of user interaction, and digital content. Practical examples of specific projects will not be long in comping: eBay announced start of trading in virtual reality.



Maksym Kozlenko
EBay, in partnership with the Australian retailer Myer store, has launched a virtual reality store. This is practically an app for iOS and Android systems.

It is enough to have a smartphone and any VR-headset to immerse in the virtual world of shopping. The company announced giveaway of 20 thousand cardboard sets of Google Cardboard kind, called Shopticles.

Thanks to a special technology Sight Search developed by eBay, users can perform various actions in the store with the help of sight. To select a particular item, you need to look at it for a few seconds. Items can be added to the shopping cart the same way, but the buyer will have to return to the eBay application and enter data for payment manually. 

3D-model are already available for some categories of products, so that customers can see the subject in great detail.

In the future, the application’s developers intend to add social capabilities such as shopping with friends. In addition, they are going to create a more personalized store by teaching the system to offer products based on previous purchases.

Steve Brennan, a director of marketing and advertising sales for Ebay, said that the next important task is to implement a seamless transaction. Now you need to go out and take a virtual smartphone in hand to make a purchase, but realization of the full sales cycle in the VR-world is expected to come out soon.

EBay’s former subsidiary, PayPal is also eyeing projects in the related field of augmented reality. The company received a patent for technology that allows analyzing objects around through glasses or augmented reality helmet, and display information about where you can buy them.

The main task is to provide consumers with an opportunity to see the object’s fullest description, in a matter of seconds showing the instructions, reviews and other relevant information.

Comments to the application, entitled "Augmented Reality View of Product Instructions" read: "Many everyday products are quite complicated to use and setup instructions to them are difficult to understand for ordinary users. In some cases, the consumer himself need to understand what additional items and accessories he needs to buy. All of these problems are caused by the lack of information in a convenient visual form. "

The technology of augmented reality, presumably, will be able to analyze and identify objects around, collect customer reviews from the network to, pick up accessories, show consistent assembly instructions, and, of course, will allow buying and paying for the goods using the PayPal payment system.

It is still early to talk about direct commercial application of the technology, but, undoubtedly, it will be developed, along with the growing popularity of virtual and augmented reality.

source: mashable.com