The retail experience gets a VR makeover at Slush

With the participation in Europe’s biggest startup event, Slush, Tieto expects to boost innovation and growth together with the ecosystem of startups and retailers. During Slush Tieto will present a VR demo that outlines the vision for future of retail and creates the base for raising customer experience. It is aimed at adding a new dimension to the omnichannel experience that supports business growth for retailers.

"VR offers the opportunity for unparalleled immersive customer experience, reached by establishing emotional connections between the consumer and objects of his or her desire. Virtual stores and inspiration showrooms will provide busy consumers with an easy way to explore new products even before they hit the shelves, or try different combinations of products to envision the end result before ordering anything. This kind of approach motivates for more exploration, at the same time allowing retailers to build stronger relations with both brands and consumers," said Ksenia Avetisova, CX Lead, Tieto XHub.

Technologies such as VR and AR raise many questions in each and every industry. Nordic companies are striving to understand how it’s changing the landscape and what is the potential impact it has on their business. Virtual Reality offers retailers the possibility to differentiate with engaging brand experiences in ways that traditional catalogues or physical stores cannot match. VR solutions don’t simply recreate conventional shopping experience, there is possibility to revolutionise shopping. Retailers are able to produce different environments to host their virtual stores, create curated experiences and build a better understanding of consumers personal preferences and taste.

"The advantage of VR solutions is that they are accessible from anywhere, independent of time or location and offer retailers the possibility to get to know customers on a much more intimate level. We see VR as extension to existing retail experience, going hand in hand with analytics, finance and marketing," said Avetisova.

The vision and demo is created by an international team of Tieto XHub, Tieto’s strategic innovation program focused on cross-industry collaboration, design thinking and customer-centricity. The VR experience vision demo is a result of collaboration between Finland, Sweden and Austria during the fall of 2016. Virtual, Augmented and Mixed realities are high on the agenda for CEM and XHub and exploration work is ongoing in multiple areas.

Visit the Tieto booth (6B.21) at Slush 2016 in Helsinki on 30^th November and 1^st December to experience their vision of retail in VR.