Thanks to modern technology and access to consumer data it is increasingly difficult to defend packaging and store displays that result in underwhelming sales. As consumer shopping continues to grow, sales should as well. Retailers and manufacturers are rethinking their approach to design with the integration of tools like virtual reality (VR) to help them make well-informed decisions in the design process that will mitigate risk and improve their bottom line.
Conceptualization in its current state is a wasteful element to design. It takes hours to collect inspirational whiteboard ideas that will come to life in the form of expensive physical mock-ups, all of which eventually end up in the garbage. However, using VR, companies can bypass this expensive and time-consuming step by quickly importing art files and sharing them across teams in a collaborative hyper-realistic retail environment. Within this environment, companies can iterate concepts on the fly while also visualizing them in the context of actual retail environments. For example, you can make sure your new concepts stand out from the blue of Walmart or the red of Target.