In the pursuit to digitize everything it makes sense that merchants would look at virtual or augmented reality to enhance the shopper’s experience. Recently Walmart filed two virtual reality patents focusing on giving users a new immersive shopping experience. CB Insights summarizes the process described by one of the patents:
“The patents describe a virtual reality headset paired with sensor-laden gloves that would allow consumers to interact with a Walmart store in a virtual world.
“Meanwhile, robots in a remote fulfillment facility would monitor consumers’ movements. As shoppers add virtual items to their virtual baskets, the self-driving robots would locate those items in the real warehouse, pick them up using an articulated arm, and deposit them into a container for shipping.
These fulfillment centers would also utilize smart shelves to monitor inventory in real time, according to the patent.”
This digital setup has a price problem, however. Virtual reality goggles – at least high-quality ones that do not cause its users motion sickness – are not currently at a price point that allows for mass market consumption. As well, many high-quality virtual reality goggles require a high-end computer with a high-end graphics card to run. And this does not account for the glove equipment, although the glove could potentially be modified to have a form factor much like the Samsung virtual reality “wand.“
Walmart is counteracting this monetary technical burden by considering virtual reality-based shopping pods. The shopping pod depicted in the image provided by CB insights looks is a small area in which an individual can stand that will have the equipment necessary to enter the virtual shopping world. I do have to question the additional value that this would provide users. A recent Forbes article pointed out that the virtual reality experience could provide some benefit to those who use the Walmart Grocery Pickup app since the app is not as user friendly as it could be. Forbes quotes a Grocery Pickup user who is enthusiastic about virtual reality’s possibilities: “That would be really awesome. That way I wouldn’t have to scroll through 400 pages of an app. Just go up and down the aisles and pick up what I want. But it has to be cost-effective.”
But if the reason for using VR is that the app is not as user friendly as individuals would like. it seems that the better solution might be just to fix the app instead of rolling out a whole new digital experience to fix an old digital experience.
From a business cost perspective, the virtual reality shopping pods could be a great win for Walmart as installing and running a virtual reality-based shopping pod would no doubt be exponentially cheaper then opening a traditional brick-and-mortar store. Whether or not shoppers would actually use them is another story.
An additional problem with this virtual shopping experience is pointed out by another shopper quoted in the Forbes article:
“Megan Torres, a working mom of two, said, ‘If I want to buy clothes or makeup, I want to physically be there to try on the clothing or see the color or texture.’ “
Currently virtual reality does not enable individuals to get an accurate image of how they will look in a clothing item they are considering for purchase. This is where augmented reality could shine. Using a mirror and cameras, “smart mirrors” would be able to place realistic images of articles of clothing or makeup on the mirrored version of a shopper allowing the person to virtually “try on” the item before you buying it. An in-store example of this can be found in a 2010 YouTube video published by Cisco. Much like virtual reality, augmented reality of this caliber is still expensive. However, as in all things tech, as time goes by and technology improves, the cost of these implementations will decrease.
As merchants continue to look for new and innovative ways to improve the consumer shopping experience, it will be important for them to keep in mind the technical hurdles that individual users may have to overcome to find value in the new shopping experiences.