Virtual reality has many retail applications; helping visualise new concepts, showing NPD to a wide audience without the need for physical mock ups and visualising a variety of store environments without the bricks and mortar. Reckitt Benckiser, the company behind major brands such as Finish, Vanish and Dettol are adding a new use for virtual reality technology by working closely with virtual reality experts Fifth Dimension to create a virtual reality store visit. Why a virtual store visit? Mark Sidey, Global Sales Director for Reckitt Benckiser, explains:- “We wanted to create a virtual movie depicting a typical store visit to [...]
Well, it’s been some time since I last settled into writing the first series of articles on this blog. Since then I, and our whole team, have been involved in many new and exciting retail initiatives, encompassing macro and micro space planning optimisation, assortment planning, virtual store research, aisle management and many innovative shopper insights projects all around the world, all of which have added enormously to our experience and breadth of retail knowledge here at Fifth Dimension. Our software development teams have also been busily building new generations of our advanced software for release this coming year, and so [...]
Visual Merchandisers Need New Planogramming Software This past two years we’ve seen traditional planogramming systems come under heavy scrutiny. These older systems were originally marketed, in the main, by data companies. This background, coupled with pressure from particularly influential clients, led to applications which were primarily optimised for analytics and overburdened with extensive but little used functionality. The net effect was software which was hard to learn and difficult to use. Today, clients have new requirements, which these older systems have difficulty in fulfilling. In our detailed surveys of both manufacturers and retailers, it emerged that they want a new [...]
Earlier this year Wilkinson commissioned Fifth Dimension to help them with the launch of their new Home Living range, which they had re-branded with a more modern design. To implement the new range they had also developed new display equipment that included a bed, curtain displays, carpet plinths etc., all of which would be new to the store staff.
To ensure a successful roll-out to the stores, Wilkinson asked Fifth Dimension to create highly visual Store Briefing Packs to show the store staff how to implement the new range most effectively. The goal was to achieve the highest standards of compliance with the guidelines and so create the best possible presentation of the new range, consistently, in all stores.
We first created a Virtual Store from which we then created detailed animations showing how to implement the new equipment, how to “dress” the product on each type of fixture and how to maintain the display each day. [... ]
