Three companies stood out on the trade show floor in the VR space: Marxent Labs, InVRsion, and In Context Solutions. All three had promising VR solutions tailored for retailers, with great potential for some creative applications and interface add-ons by agency partners like Valtech.
Another technology that got a lot of attention from retailers was augmented reality, and yes, this included a few “magic mirror” options. These have grown up and are looking better since their early adoption days, most of which were poorly executed.
The magic mirrors seem to be targeted to specific industries, mainly beauty and fashion. This technology becomes powerful when it enables virtual trials of products such as clothing options or makeup. A good user interface applied to this hardware can reduce the difficulty of finding products that appeal to an individual, while opening up essentially unlimited options to them. We see this driving spontaneous purchases that will increase revenues. We left thinking that the user experience and interface hadn’t really been nailed yet, and this is going to be a key area of focus for Valtech this year.