The Campaign

Whilst virtual reality was a technology in the spotlight, it’s use has been mainly as a novelty, mirroring real world experiences. Yet as a utility it’s in its infancy with the potential to change the way we interact with everything around us. If we could infuse this fledgling technology with true utility, we could forge an entirely new, immersive and personalised retail experience beyond e-commerce and into an unexplored channel of the future, V-commerce. The ambition was to create a virtual reality ‘future of retail’ experience in partnership with MYER – one of Australia’s most iconic department stores – that enabled users to explore, navigate, and purchase over 12,500 products using nothing more than their eyes. Users could personalise the store to their preferences while artificial intelligence learned about the user as they browsed, algorithmically serving product recommendations based on the individual. Introducing the World’s First Virtual Reality Department Store.

Creative Execution

Endless challenges presented themselves along the way. No true retail VR experience existed, meaning the UX, navigation, physics systems and underlying logic was developed from scratch. We first developed a custom physics engine and VR navigation system called ‘Sight Search’, allowing users to browse, sort and purchase over 12,500 products using their eyes. Complex relationship algorithms allowed users to spawn related items by looking at products. To guide users to relevant products, we selected Myer’s top products and modelled them in full 3D and increased their weighting within the experience. We then integrated directly into the eBay platform APIs, pulling in real-time data including price, inventory levels and product data, making it another true retail channel. Machine learning was integrated to learn about the user, algorithmically serving relevant products as they browsed. We implemented the ability for users to personalise their store by choosing category preferences. The application was deployed across iOS, Android and the Oculus store with a launch event and 2 day consumer activation at the MCA in Sydney attended by media, influencers and the public. To seed the application we manufactured 20,000 pairs of cardboard VR viewers called ‘shopticals’ and gave them away in an online promotion.