The Future of Virtual Pop Up Stores is Here
These unprecedented times have profoundly impacted the way we live, work, socialize and shop. Consumers who previously enjoyed retail therapy to alleviate stress, anxiety and experience a confidence boost through purchasing decisions now have to alter their mindset and embrace this new wave of virtual shopping in the digital arena. This novel approach to online shopping has been embraced and adopted by many notable brands who understand the demand and try to navigate these technological developments by weaving them into their imaging and value. This digital shift has allowed brands to replicate their customer’s physical shopping habits while diminishing feelings of absence and nostalgia. Despite the abrupt changes to our lives, consumers still have a deep desire, if not more, to indulge, and brands must find ways to cater to this.
As physical selling expertise has come to an abrupt halt, brands have found themselves pitted against one another in a market that has never been more saturated and cut-throat. Brand awareness, attention, and marketing have become an integral component in making them stand tall against the competition. Still, age-old methods have proven ineffective on a demographic that has dramatically progressed. This is where avant-garde technology has come into play and been a game-changer for brands. Although the concept of a virtual pop-up store is not necessarily something that has been introduced in the last year, it has certainly been augmented by the pandemic with cutting-edge technology and design injected into them. As estimations project that COVID-19 accelerated the shift to digital shopping by around five years, brands and retail stores were forced to adopt these new technologies to stay current and move with the trends that were saturating e-commerce shopping.
Luxury French cosmetics and fragrance house Lancôme were among the first of the industry’s major players to adapt to the pandemic’s detrimental effects upon retail. Their seismic plans to launch physical pop-ups worldwide to showcase their new products were suspended as the pandemic took control. By employing ByondXR to create virtual stores, the cosmetics house was able to salvage their plans for the worldwide pop-up stores, all while abiding by pandemic guidelines and remaining socially distanced. The virtual pop-up store created by ByondXR provided immersive, interactive elements that were advanced by high-quality levels of realism and definition, not just portraying a true to life experience but also an entertaining one. Accessible through a smartphone or PC, the technology was completely revolutionized and fit for purpose, giving it a new lease of life.
