By Laura Kobylecky

Normally, a convention like CES has a big expo hall with a variety of companies and promotional marketing techniques. This year, at online CES 2021, that has been replaced with a virtual exhibit hall. It is a section of the CES website where the exhibitors are listed alphabetically.

You can also narrow the exhibitors by category. Click on their name and you will go to a page with some basic info and whatever facts, media, and contact information they choose to provide. There is also a chat function available. Some of them have a “microsite,” a custom website they have created solely for their CES presence.

P&G LifeLab

Proctor and Gamble have taken it a step further. They created a virtual world, accessible as a microsite. It is called LifeLab. In some ways, it is the recreation of a basic experiential marketing event at a convention. There is an event “footprint,” a small area transformed into a branded space where they have demos. There are brand representatives roaming about and waiting to help or explain.

#CES2021 features a virtual exhibit hall
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When you first click on the microsite, you are offered the chance to modify your avatar. The standard is a genderless blue form in tan slacks and a black long-sleeve shirt. You enter an elevator and appear to be traveling through the void of space, except the stars are replaced by various P&G products.

You leave the elevator to enter a large white room. There you can go to other areas, like the strangely dark “Oral B” world. You walk up to videos and they show animated screens with bacteria and speak ominously about tooth decay. The audio is dimensional. As you turn to leave, the sound retreats quietly and in a spatially-correct direction.

Overall P&G's LifeLab it is an interestingly ambitious experiment in virtual experiential marketing
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On the main floor, you can speak with the representatives. If you stand still, they are likely to approach. They speak to you with real human voices and human names and you realize that these are probably actual humans. They offer to explain things to you and you can press space to speak. Or you can back away without speaking. Oddly enough, the experience seems slightly more awkward than avoiding a conversation in real life, perhaps because the room is so empty.

If you walk by other people, you can hear their conversations too. This experience is also rendered with appropriately dimensional sound. There are “private” sitting areas you can go to if you would like to speak without all ears on your conversation. There is also a chat function for those who choose not to speak.

Proctor and Gamble have created a virtual world, accessible as a micrositem called LifeLab
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If you walk to the edge of the room you see a beautiful coastal view through a giant glass wall, but you can walk no farther. It might be a lake or an ocean. How this striking coastline relates to the LifeLab remains a mystery, but it makes the strange, white, room you roam in seem more bare and stark by contrast.

Occasionally, a small group of birds flies by randomly. You hear their calls at random points throughout the hall. Their sound, like the rest, is spatially placed, to a haunting effect as their voices echo in the room. They seem as hopeless as a sparrow in a grocery store. Who are these birds and how did they become trapped in the LifeLab? The answer is a mystery, known only to the makers of this mysterious lab.

Overall, it is an interestingly ambitious experiment in virtual experiential marketing. The graphics ran smoothly and the overall layout seemed well designed. I can imagine companies seeing this as a cost-effective substitute for the live events they would normally do.

Oddly enough, the experience seems slightly more awkward than avoiding a conversation in real life, perhaps because the room is so empty
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Does it meaningfully recreate the level of engagement normally available at a convention? Probably not. However, the P&G LifeLab is an admirable attempt at engaging marketing in a socially-distant world.

Tech Trends’ Digital Consultancy services offer support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality

Laura Kobylecky is a contributing writer to Tech Trends. She is particularly interested in new and emerging technology and culture. Connect with her on LinkedIn 

The post Virtual Marketing at #CES2021 appeared first on Tech Trends.

So, you want my attention? Then you’d better inform me, entertain me, or offer me something that has a real, clear, and immediate value. Preferably all of the above.

While it is true that traditional advertising still generates plenty of revenue, the writing is on the wall as people’s attention spans – already very short – become even shorter, and we become ever more adept at ignoring blatant messages that are forcibly bombarded at us in the digital advertising arena.

Ad blockers are becoming increasingly common, so much so that some websites have started to demand you turn them off before you’re allowed to browse their content
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The fact is that online advertising doesn’t really do it for me most of the time, because when I’m online I’m doing something – either for work or fun, or a mixture of both – and my brain automatically sifts through any pesky interruptions. The only engagement that pop-up windows get from me is enough eyeball time to locate the little cross to close them so I can get on with my business already.

Ad blockers are becoming increasingly common, so much so that some websites have started to demand you turn them off before you’re allowed to browse their content (I immediately leave such sites out of principle, nobody likes being told what to do in that way)

The fact is that most consumers actually prefer to engage with more traditional out-of-home advertising such as billboards, but this comes with another whole set of shortcomings compared to digital
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Advertising, in other words, needs to be relevant, but not pushy, and relevant, but not in a creepy way. For instance, I sometimes do notice the bots that follow my web journeys and try to capitalize on what I’ve been searching, and the fact I notice I’m being targeted makes me less likely to engage with them.

A classic example is that of a friend who told me that he once needed to buy a toilet seat to replace a broken one, and after he made that less-than-thrilling but necessary purchase, seemed to be forever doomed with being pushed adverts for toilet seats on Facebook. “I don’t collect them, you know” he mused.

The fact is that most consumers actually prefer to engage with more traditional out-of-home advertising such as billboards, but this comes with another whole set of shortcomings compared to digital – namely inflexibility, lack of interactivity and inability to measure results, not to mention the fact that this option is simply out of reach for most small-scale businesses, since the industry is highly centralized and controlled by a few established players which impose high costs and tend to be rather inflexible and antiquated in their requirements.

Advertisers can book displays in near real-time and run their campaigns on the screens selected by them within the desired radius or area
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Digital out-of-home advertising (DOOH) until recently also fell into that category, but here’s where the technology trend that has disrupted every other major industry – namely the shared economy that has given us Airbnb, Uber and countless others– could come into play to level the playing field.

A platform that is looking to do just that is HYGH, which connects advertisers directly with outdoor display providers so they can create hyperlocal advertising campaigns at a much lower cost.

The idea is that any screen – tablets, televisions, digital billboards, etc. – in a public space can be converted into ad space, no matter its location or intended purpose. The owner of the screen can easily download the software and link it to the HYGH platform. Once paired, the device becomes a node in a flexible advertising chain that is available for interested businesses to leverage and engage consumers with.

The idea is that any screen – tablets, televisions, digital billboards, etc. - in a public space can be converted into ad space
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Advertisers can book displays in near real-time and run their campaigns on the screens selected by them within the desired radius or area. They can also pick specific time slots for their advertisement to be played, which in return helps them to target the right audience. HYGH simplifies the booking process so they only need to register in the system, create a campaign, search for displays and soon the campaign is good to go live.

This could prove to be a lifeline for many bricks-and-mortar businesses currently struggling to stay competitive in the high street, which can monetize parts of their real estate by allowing such displays on their premises.

The advantage of such an approach is that it combines the scalability and ease of deployment that you get with online advertising with the engaging, impactful location-based user experience, with precise targeting powered by smart analysis. This allows campaigns to be highly customizable, interactive and adaptive.

The advantage of such an approach is that it combines the scalability and ease of deployment that you get with online advertising with the engaging, impactful location-based user experience
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Under their revenue share model, the display owner gets 83.5%, validators will receive 2.5%, HYGH takes a rather modest 5% cut, and security token holders receive 9%. The idea here is to build a globally distributed ecosystem by ensuring that all parties derive maximum ROI from it.

So where it comes to the future of advertising, the strategy pioneered by HYGH here really takes the best of both worlds by bringing the physical and digital together in one blended and coherent user experience. Where it comes to getting your message across without annoying your prospective customers, that really would seem like the smartest approach.

So, you want my attention? Then you’d better inform me, entertain me, or offer me something that has a real, clear, and immediate value. Preferably all of the above
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Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a XR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Shared Economy Advertising appeared first on Tech Trends.

Composing a good meme is a mixture of art and science, but this infographic published by Mashable dives into some of the key ingredients that many successful memes share.

Memes are some of the most popular sticker themes
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But if you think that these whimsical marriages of clever words and opportunist imagery are a digital-only phenomenon, well, think again. Getting your Meme to go viral online is one thing. Seeing it materialize in the real world, however, has to count as an extra achievement unlocked. And that’s what is increasingly happening, with people and companies printing their favourite memes as stickers.

And that’s what one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies is dedicated to catering to. StickerYou recently opened a store in Toronto to complement its thriving online business proviving custom stickers for individuals and businesses of all sizes. StickerYou’s Founder and President Andrew Witkin says that memes are some of their most popular sticker themes, and that this fun element is a big part of what draws people to stickers, and why they often become collectible items.

“People have always collected stickers, but the difference these days, of course, is that technology gives people and small brands not only great content like memes to play with, but also the chance to produce customized stickers much more easily. The design tools are intuitive and you can test the ground with a small batch to start with,” he explains.

Many artists and designers are now turning to stickers as a way of extending the creative reach of their work, which makes sense given the way that our virtual an digital worlds are increasingly blending together, not least due to XR technologies that blur those boundaries between atoms and bits every day.

One of those artists is Ricardo Cavolo, an illustrator native to Salamanca, Spain, who has recently developed a special edition of the iconic blue Chiquita banana stickers. You can see the artist at work in the video below, appropriately using a Virtual Reality headset and Tilt Brush to go about creating the stickers that make liberal use of flamboyant colours, vivid imagery, and graffiti/pop art iconography, as well as Cavolo’s emblematic symbol of a heart with flames, which he says is a representation of the power that lies within all of us to overcome adversity.

Many artists and designers are now turning to stickers as a way of extending the creative reach of their work
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There’s been a surge of interest in streetwear lately and stickers are a core part of those cultures
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Luggage brand RIMOWA has also recently launched a range of stickers inspired by sustainability entitled “A collection of stone, lava, meteorite, ice, driftwood, and lichen stickers.” This came about as a result of the collaboration between Olafur Eliasson’s Little Sun Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission to deliver solar energy to the most vulnerable communities worldwide. Only 500 stickers were made in numbered units packaged in eco-friendly boxes and became available to purchase online on December 3^rd, as well as at select RIMOWA retailers.

And RIMOWA is certainly not alone. Many big brands are capitalizing on the social and collectible nature of stickers as a medium to engage fickle fans.

Technology gives people and small brands not only great content like memes to play with, but also the chance to produce customized stickers much more easily
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According to a recent article in the Guardian, branded stickers are now among the fashion industry’s most sought-after items, as consumers eagerly slap them onto their laptops and other possessions to convey not only affinity with a label, but to reflect their own tastes and personalities. In other words, it signifies you’re part of a subculture.

Skateboard brand Palace for instance, released a sticker pack that sold out within an hour, and rare versions were reselling online for hundreds of dollars soon after. Other examples include stickers of the classic Calvin Klein Jeans image of Brooke Shields (you know the one) and fashion brand Coach which has produced leather stickers, while Berlin-based magazine o32c published a sticker sheet from Louis Vuitton’s creative director, Virgil Abloh.

Electronic musician James Lavelle says there is something about the tactile nature of stickers that gives them an authentic vibe as opposed to a massive digital marketing campaign, which can often feel rather impersonal.

“There’s been a surge of interest in streetwear lately and stickers are a core part of those cultures,” says Alex Powis co-founder of Stickerarchive, an online collection of popular graphics. He compares stickers to a form of coded messaging that lets people know what tribe you belong to.

Maybe one of the reasons I’ve always liked stickers is because mixing and matching – or even deciding where to place them –  lets you be creative without having to possess outstanding artistic talents of your own. I’m OK with the fact that my skills do not extend to drawing (pray you never get paired up with me on a game of Pictionary) but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy visual artistic expression. Stickers are very democratic. Literally anyone can join in the fun on an equal footing.

I am, in fact, writing this on a laptop covered with stickers I bought or collected at various places I visited, conferences I attended, or places I can’t even remember. But the stickers are still here, and long may they endure.

Alice Bonasio is a XR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post The Secret to a Sticky Meme appeared first on Tech Trends.

In previous posts here at Tech Trends we’ve talked a lot about the convergence of the online and offline worlds and how that applies to shopping and the retail sector, where omnichannel marketing is proving the way forward.

A bit part of that is enabling businesses that do depend heavily on having a physical presence to remain competitive. Many of us love shopping in our “mom-and-pop” stores but whether we like to admit it or not, technology has changed our expectations of what a good shopping experience looks and feels like.

Many of us love shopping in our “mom-and-pop” stores but whether we like to admit it or not, technology has changed our expectations of what a good shopping experience looks and feels like
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We want to support local businesses, for sure, but we expect them to cater to our newly found tastes for customized, on-demand, sleekly presented fare. We want to be able to engage with them on social media with compelling video content, and we want them to “look the business” and not like a tired relic from a bygone era.

But all of that costs money, right? Well yes, but not quite as much as you might think. Like with a lot of areas, technology has brought disruption, but also enabled hacks that mean small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) can achieve dramatic rebranding results with only a fraction of the budget a larger enterprise would spend.

One great weapon in that arsenal is the ability that companies like StickerYou offer to produce customized branding materials which literally enable a business to quickly don a new, fresh skin with no mess and very little in the way of resources.

We want to support local businesses, for sure, but we expect them to cater to our newly found tastes for customized, on-demand, sleekly presented fare
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Companies like StickerYou offer small businesses the ability to produce customized branding materials which enable them to quickly don a new, fresh skin with no mess and very little in the way of resources
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To prove that point, the Canadian company ran a Make It Better contest across North America, inviting small businesses to enter and win a top-of-the-range makeover. Over 700 applicants applied for the prize (which had an estimated value of $10,000) From the 23 finalists, The Knight Butcher was finally crowned the winner, receiving a comprehensive makeover including with window decals, hours signage, floor decals, signs for fridges and freezers and true decals.

The Knight Butcher – a genuine mom-and-pop business owned by husband and wife team Terri and Chad Knight – emerged renewed from its improvements within a single day, highlighting the fact that revamping a bricks-and-mortar shop can be as easy as adjusting the design on your website, as long as you get the right people to help out!

The Knight Butcher - a genuine mom-and-pop business owned by husband and wife team Terri and Chad Knight – emerged renewed from its improvements within a single day
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Revamping a bricks-and-mortar shop can be as easy as adjusting the design on your website, as long as you get the right people to help out!
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For more information on how your business can also get a very affordable makeover, check out the StickerYou website, or if you’re in Toronto, be sure to check out their own brand new store, which is also the largest sticker store in the world.

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Making Rebranding Stick appeared first on Tech Trends.

Many influential brands such as Coca-Cola and IKEA have used VR and AR to create campaigns to enhance the customer experience. Collectively known as XR, these technologies are becoming much more accessible to retailers looking for additional tools to create engaging experiences.

Many influential brands such as Coca-Cola and IKEA have used VR and AR to create campaigns to enhance the customer experience
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One example of this is the use of technology to create multi-sensory environments, whereby these brands can leverage not only visuals, but also smells, sounds, and touch to heighten those experiences.

The entire StickerYou store is an experiential space designed to surprise and hopefully delight visitors
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Whiskey brand Diageo has experimented with playing the crackling sound of an open fire at the bar, while a, a pop-up for home fragrance brand Glade designed each room inside the location to match a particular scent, aiming to create an emotional response that resonated with visitors.

StickerYou is a trend-setter in its space, deploying an omnichannel strategy that lets its customers engage with the brand both online and in a physical location
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Yet immersive experiences don’t necessarily involve the use of XR technologies, however, they can also achieve this by using physical objects and textures.

Take Canadian e-commerce brand StickerYou, for instance. They are global leaders in providing custom-printed, die-cut products that empower businesses and consumers to create professional-grade materials for marketing, packaging, decor and personal expression, which is a fancy way of saying they have been making awesome stickers since they started their business with one machine back in 2008.

Immersive experiences don’t necessarily involve the use of XR technologies. They can also use physical objects and textures
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Fast forward to today, and StickerYou is a trend-setter in its space, deploying an omnichannel strategy that lets its customers engage with the brand both online and in a physical location. This is why they’ve just opened the world’s largest sticker store in Toronto on August 12. The idea is for the store to serve as a continuation and extension of the online experience, and customers seamlessly switch between the two as an when it’s most convenient, appropriate, or fun to do so.

Most marketers now recognize there is much more value in cultivating a long-term relationship with a customer
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Below you can check out a time-lapse video showing how the amazing 3-storey tall vinyl graphic (installed in collaboration with applied sciences giant 3M) was put in place for the eye-catching store frontage.

UPDATE: Following the news of @StickerYou setting up shop in Toronto with the world’s largest sticker store, here’s a time-lapse of the building’s exterior vinyl graphic being installed. https://t.co/XqKvZAZ7N9 pic.twitter.com/aEjLupM3SW

— Digital Labels & Packaging (@DigitalLPack) August 7, 2019

The entire store is an experiential space designed to surprise and hopefully delight visitors, giving them something to remember in whether or not they choose to make a purchase at that time.

That last point is also important, as most marketers now recognize there is much more value in cultivating a long-term relationship with a customer, rather than merely trying to cash in on the short term and dealing with people on a purely transactional basis, which builds no loyalty.

Some of the experiential features in the store include:

• Stickerbombed walls

• Custom experience space where customer can see other user-created sticker designs

• Kiosks for creating your own stickers using StickerYou’s online StickerMaker

• Sticker museum (located in the basement) taking visitors through the history of stickers and what has it such a popular art form.

• Sticker art exhibition (slated for the fall) which will feature work from artists from all over the globe, including Shepard Fairey and Matthew Hoffman.

• The brainchild of Toronto e-comm startup and customized die-cut sticker company StickerYou, StickerYou: The Store

“We are proud to open the world’s largest sticker store in Toronto,” says StickerYou founder and CEO Andrew Witkin. “We are excited to give customers the chance to interact with our products and experience the creative potential of stickers for business or personal expression. At StickerYou, we make what matters stick.”

If you happen to be in Toronto, be sure to check out the StickerYou store at 677-679 Queen Street West

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Moving Towards Experiential Marketing appeared first on Tech Trends.

Let’s start with a bit of jargon busting; in a nutshell, Ominchannel brings together the benefits of e-commerce and physical – what is known as “bricks and mortar” retailers.

Many start-ups and Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) would do well to incorporate omnichannel thinking in their own roadmaps
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As with many such things this trend was set by Amazon (which started setting up locations to support and extend its online operations) and others (Warby Parker and Shopify to name but a couple) have quickly latched onto its obvious advantages. Now companies such as Wal-Mart are wisely viewing physical stores as places where customers can pick up and return merchandise, a combination of e-commerce and physical retail that makes the purchase experience more convenient than either an e-commerce or retail store alone.

Ominchannel brings together the benefits of e-commerce with bricks and mortar retailers
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But those big names shouldn’t give the impression that this type of strategy only works on a large scale. Start-ups and Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) would do well to incorporate such thinking in their own roadmaps.

In an age where (not least because of the advent of immersive technologies and spatial computing) the physical and digital worlds are increasingly blending together, as are the shopping experiences that consumers expect. But while we wait for the world of Ready Player One, where haptic suits will routinely enhance Virtual Reality with physical sensations, humans will still get their tactile experiences in a “real world” shop.

In an age where (not least because of the advent of immersive technologies and spatial computing) the physical and digital worlds are increasingly blending together, as are the shopping experiences that consumers expect
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One company leading this trend is StickerYou, which successfully sells custom stickers and decals online, and is now planning to open the world’s largest sticker store in Toronto later this month. Tech Trends talks to their Founder and President, Andrew Witkin, about why they have decided to take the omnichannel approach, and what other digital retailers should take into account before going down that road themselves.

The first step says Witkin, is to do a thorough audit of what your start-up’s goals are, what products you offer and whether or not these products or services are significantly enhanced by an in-person experience
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“For example, at StickerYou, we offer customized, die-cut stickers, but there is a large gap between ordering stickers online and feeling the quality of a sticker, or being inspired by the creativity of sticker designs right in front of you, which is why we are opening a retail space in 2019,” he says. “When customers can experience these products in real time, it can help drive brand awareness in a way that e-commerce simply can’t. Having a brick and mortar location not only allows customers to experience your products in person, it also opens up a host of opportunities for savvy e-commerce retailers.”

These opportunities can range from hosting product and industry-focused workshops and events to gleaning in-person feedback from customers on products and services, a brick and mortar location, properly leveraged, can be a place for a brand to shine.

When evaluating this benefit, Witkin recommends that business owners look at the retail location as a channel that can push online sales rather than a store that is evaluated solely by traditional retail metrics.

“Your retail location works as both a store and an advertising space for your e-commerce business. As such, weigh the current per-click costs of online advertising against the potential costs of driving individualized shopping experiences through in-store brand interactions, drop-ins and walk-by traffic. If these types of interactions can be considered as impressions, then a physical retail space can break even or operate at a loss and still be ROI positive, as long as it succeeds in driving increases in online sales and overall lowered cost-per-click ad spend.”

“If your retail space breaks even, all marketing value generated by the store could be considered as free. As long as the KPIs of retail marketing campaigns are equal to or less than that of the current online strategies for your business, then the omnichannel strategy pans out for you.”

This alone will make the search experience a more memorable one, kind of like searching through records in a bin and discovering something new you didn’t know you were looking for.

They are getting ready to open a StickerYou store in the next few weeks in Toronto’s hippest quarter at 677-679 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada, and they are planning to make a splash (this will be, according to the company, the world’s largest sticker store) with a 3-storey tall vinyl graphic in collaboration with applied sciences company 3M.

The trend towards traditional retailers closing has also meant that commercial landlords have become more open to offers of short-term rent deals and pop-up concepts
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The store will be an experiential space, with stickerbombed walls, tangible product, a custom experience space where customers can see others’ designs and kiosks where they can create their own using StickerYou’s online StickerMaker. There will also be a Sticker Museum that details the history of stickers in the basement, and a sticker art exhibition is set to take place in the fall (the first of many), featuring works from sticker artists across the globe such as Shepard Fairey (think the iconic Obama “Hope” illustrations) and Matthew Hoffman (You Are Beautiful).

“Ecommerce retailers need to approach this from an entirely different perspective, and ask themselves what a physical store and buying experience adds to their brand that online channels don’t.”

The trend towards traditional retailers closing has also meant that commercial landlords have become more open to offers of short-term rent deals and pop-up concepts which carry lower risk for e-tailers to dabble in the omnichannel concept, according to Witkin.

“I would first evaluate if the business, merchandise or brand experience can be enhanced by a physical retail location. If the answer is yes, then I would start with a pop-up and test the waters.”

“The ROI on the retail investment can be viewed against the physical store’s sales as well as incremental online sales due to the additional brand awareness that the physical store generates.”

Witkin sees the trend gaining momentum creating a new online/brick and mortar hybrid which is unlike either traditional retailers or online-only stores, but something better than the sum of its parts.

Many online retailers may only open one store, or a handful of stores
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“I believe more online retailers will get into physical retail,” he writes.  “However, I don’t believe the scale of stores will be the same as that of traditional retail chains. Perhaps an online retailer will have a few stores in a city, but I don’t believe many online retailers will go past that. Many online retailers may only open up just one store, or a handful of stores.”

Witkin also sees a paradoxical trend in the opposite direction to some degree with brick-and-mortar stores investing in their online presence. For some time, they focused on omnichannel pick up locations which gave them a good footing. However, he says these traditional brick-and-mortar retailers need to improve the merchandise experience in store so there’s more reason to engage products and not just pick things up from their physical locations.

The StickerYou store will open in mid-August at 677-679 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Bringing Digital and Physical Together with an Omnichannel Strategy appeared first on Tech Trends.

Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality technologies will bring opportunities for merchants as consumer adoption grows.

There is high consumer interest to use VR for making purchase decisions while shopping online or in-store.
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While E-commerce and digital marketing have proven to be effective platforms, Virtual Reality (VR) is the next innovative technology that will improve and impact the retail and marketing sectors, with market-foresight advisory firm ABI Research forecasting that VR in retail and marketing sectors is expected to generate US$1.8 billion in 2022.

Click here to find out more about how to reduce server response time

Retail and marketing companies have realized that virtual reality technology can be an effective tool to further assist consumers with the purchase process and provide them with the ability to visualize and personalize the products more realistically,” says Khin Sandi Lynn, Industry Analyst at ABI Research.

Automotive companies and travel agencies are already using VR as a marketing tool, with applications such as virtual test drives and 360-degree tours becoming more widespread. E-commerce is another sector with a good potential for VR deployment. Chinese E-commerce company Alibaba has deployed its Buy+ mobile VR platform for better product visualizing. Alibaba integrates its Alipay payment platform to assist consumers making payment while browsing products using Buy+ VR.

“There is high consumer interest in using VR for making purchase decisions while shopping online or in-store. The availability of low-cost VR headsets is another driver of consumer VR use cases for purchasing products,” notes Lynn.

Walmart’s recent acquisition of VR software company Spatialand is another indicator of VR deployment as a retail solution in the future, as is their use of HoloLens for helping better manage their warehouse logistics. Consumers’ awareness together with investment by retailers and brands will drive the VR retail and marketing market.

VR can be used for market research to understand consumer behavior
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Walmart’s recent acquisition of VR software company Spatialand is another indicator of VR deployment as a retail solution in the future
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Furniture and home improvement stores have been early adopters of VR in the retail segment. VR is an effective platform for customers to view furniture, pick different parts, customize products, and/or visualize an item before making a purchase decision, and has been adopted both in-store and online to provide a better shopping experience to consumers.

IKEA and Lowe’s have successfully deployed Immersive Technologies in their stores
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Swedish furniture company IKEA and North American home improvement company Lowe’s are two examples that have successfully deployed it, as are Augment – a French company that Tech Trends met last year in Orlando, Florida, which builds syndicated catalogs of AR-ready products from the world’s major brands like Microsoft, Panasonic, Electrolux, and make it available to all retailers through an AR SDK, supporting ARKit / ARCore.

“The number one issue we’re hearing from retailers launching AR for eCommerce (Amazon, Build.com, Overstock, Wayfair…) is the management of 3D products,” explains the company’s Co-Founder and COO Mickaël Jordan. “It’s expensive, time consuming, and each retailer is basically building its own catalogue of similar AR-ready models of appliances, electronics and furniture. It’s nonsense,” he says.

Some of the key findings in ABI Research’s VR in Retail and Marketing report include:

• VR software and service revenue in retail and marketing will grow at CAGR 102% to generate $1.8 billion 2022.
• E-commerce and digital marketing has shifted the way brand and retailers market the products. VR is the next innovation in retail and marketing sector. The realistic feel provided by VR provides many benefits to retail and marketing; enhanced shopping experience, efficient marketing tool, more effective store management system etc.
• VR can also be used for market research to better understand consumer behavior.
• Furniture stores such as IKEA have deployed VR for product browsing, selection and customization. Lowe’s has another interesting VR deployment which allows shoppers to learn how to install their products.
• E-commerce and other sectors such as travel agencies are also starting to use VR to visualize products or try tours, hotels or flight experience before purchasing product or services.
• VR assists consumers in making purchase decisions, helping retail and marketing companies to achieve greater footfall and decrease returns rates.
• There is great interest from both retailers and consumers to use VR in purchasing process. However, deployment cost can be a challenge for smaller retailers and VR might not be the right platform for older generation consumers who are not yet familiar with the technology.

If you would like to find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

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