eBay And Myer To Launch VR Department Store

EBay and Myer, the Australian marketplace, are joining forces to launch what they are billing as the world’s first virtual reality department store.

Through the new virtual reality department store, shoppers can browse more than 12,500 Myer products, which can be selected and added to their cart via eBay Sight Search. The virtual reality department store connects to the existing eBay.com.au application programming interface and enables Myer’s product range, pricing and stock information to be updated in real time.

The two are offering customers the opportunity to get their own so-called “shopticals”, or specially designed virtual reality viewers, to begin their VR shopping. The companies said there are 15,000 shopticals available free.

Australians can download the eBay VR Department Store app on their smartphone and insert their phone into the shopticals with the app open to start their virtual shopping experience.

“We’re making this technology accessible to all Australians with our giveaway of 15,000 shopticals. Their insights and feedback will be invaluable to us as we look to the future of VR and build out experiences that take retail to the next level,” said Steve Brennen, CMO and senior director of retail innovation for eBay, in a press release.

With the new department store, consumers will be able to select their areas of interest at the beginning, and the store will be custom-built around their needs. Using eBay Sight Search, the shoppers will be able to view a product in the store, and by holding their gaze on it, the product selected will automatically float toward them. The top 100 products can be viewed in 3D, while more than 8,000 products can be viewed in 2D. To get information about a product, users will only have to lock eyes on the information icons, and to purchase something, all they have to do is hold their eyes on the Add to Basket icon. Purchases can even be completed with the shopticals.