Marketers’ Roundtable: How Virtual Reality Is Changing the Business of Retail

And what's stalling adoption

Mark Hardy
CEO
InContext Solutions
John Hennessy
Chief Revenue Officer, Virtual Reality Practice
Kantar Consulting
Heather Salkin
Senior Vice President, Innovation, North America
Momentum

Consumers only see the public-facing applications of virtual reality (VR) from retailers and brands, but behind the scenes the technology is hard at work helping companies plan, design and test retail concepts more efficiently than ever before. We asked three industry leaders how VR helps their clients innovate more quickly and confidently at the brick-and-mortar level. These interviews were conducted as part of eMarketer’s April report, "Virtual Reality Beyond Gaming: Solving Business Problems in Industries."

eMarketer:

Why has VR become an integral tool in the retail planning and design process for many businesses?

Mark Hardy:

They want to optimize retail by eliminating costs. They want to save time and reduce the risk in their decisions. A VR decision-support and collaboration platform helps them simulate concepts and gain knowledge upfront about the impact of a particular retail concept.

Heather Salkin:

When it comes to the physical development of spaces, VR helps to rapidly create objects and environments. You can test these in a virtual world and get valuable feedback before you put money into the brick-and-mortar. You can make changes in your physical space faster. You can also help marketing managers—and even store managers—visualize what needs to happen within days as opposed to weeks.

Interview conducted on February 12, 2018

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