Virtual Stores become a New Reality
Procter and Gamble is often cited as one of the most innovative companies in the retail world. In 1999 we our first opportunity to work with them in Cincinnati developing, among other things, our first applications of our (then) embryonic Virtual Store technologies.
We (Fifth Dimension) had by then built up many years of experience in the use of what was then becoming known as Virtual Reality. With countless photo-realistic computer visualizations of buildings and their interiors delivered to satisfied customers in the architectural, engineering, sports, product manufacturing and retail sectors, we had built a reputation second to none in our field. At that time though, we hadn’t used our technology specifically to study consumer behaviour. Nor had we developed our virtual worlds to be fully interactive. That was all in the future, but, as it turned out, much nearer than we expected at the time; although we had done more research and development work toward that goal than most.
Pioneering with Procter and Gamble
So, we were fortunate to team up with P and G’s Mary Eichenberger, a great enthusiast and forward thinker, who introduced us to various colleagues and helped us put our capabilities to good use on their behalf.
The first project required us to develop a Virtual Mall, inside which we created a special P and G kiosk so they could study consumers’ responses to certain new ideas they were interested in testing. This study’s positive outcome and the experience they gained spurred them on to more ambitious initiatives.
The First Virtual Mall Store
In September of 1999, P and G wanted to test the acceptability and interest in a new range of personal products on a variety of consumers, but they didn’t want to use their normal outlets or the mainstream grocery channels. Instead they preferred the idea of an in-mall specialist store dedicated to this range of products. They wanted to create an environment which would educate consumers as well as provide a relaxed atmosphere for them to explore, seek advice on and purchase the products, as part of a holistic personal ‘treatment’.
We were asked to create a Virtual Mall and a three roomed Virtual Store based on a ‘Spa’ like theme where these ideas could be thoroughly tested without revealing the concepts to their competition. A company called Bases were asked to provide supporting information and look at forecasted sales and potential profits from the concept. To provide some of the raw data for that we were asked to make all the displayed products fully shoppable and also to provide a ‘basket’ database which could be analyzed by respondent.
We agreed to a dramatically short timescale in order to meet the client’s desired deadlines for presenting insights. Fortunately we had all the expertise needed immediately available and a final design was shared with P and G in less than a month. One of the principal design constraints was that the study had to be conducted in-field on low specification computers.
That was quite a challenge. It taught us to be even more inventive and economic with our virtual store geometry and product imaging, so as to achieve the best performance in-field.
The project went into field testing in June 2000 and was very successful in helping P and G determine the potential of the concept.
The technology created for the ‘Spa’ project would later become the foundation of our mainstream offering in Virtual Store research, namely Discovery.
Here is an animation showing some of the store:-
