Impact of Virtual Reality on the Business World

The world is slowly changing and creating room for innovation. Among these great innovative techniques, virtual reality is the one. It is a technology that is well-spread across the globe.

After gaming and entertainment, Virtual Reality has made its way to the business. We have seen many incredible products, demos and videos all using Virtual Reality technology that engages you with the content. Virtual Reality has dynamic capabilities, the ability to take 360° videos allow small businesses to give a virtual tour of their premises. Whether it's a real estate agent showing a virtual open house, a tour operator showing an event in action, or a cafe giving a complete tour of its kitchen, it is getting wildly popular. Social media platforms like Facebook and Youtube hosts 360° photos and videos which you can upload straight to your social pages. Virtual Reality gives your business a bigger canvas for marketing activities and gives the customer a richer and new experience when they are interacting with your brand. It can improve product planning, training and other aspects of a business. Businesses are incorporating Virtual Reality into their routine business processes and making operations more smooth and effective.

What is Virtual Reality?

VR is a concept of using computer technology to create a 3-dimensional world where users can manipulate and explore while feeling as they experience it for real. It is used with the help of VR headsets and other VR based devices. Virtual Reality is a technology that includes many digital elements to bring life-like experience. The major elements are 3D images that appear to be life-sized, the ability to track user motions, immersion, interaction and telepresence. These elements combine to provide the user with immersive experiences. 

To experience Virtual Reality we need VR devices such as VR headsets. There are many VR headsets available for different purposes. It is important to choose the best suited VR device for your business needs.

VR in the world of Education.

Virtual Reality is an infinite set of opportunities for the education industry. Imagine sitting in a classroom in Scotland and taking a trip to the great pyramid, or sitting in a classroom in the USA and joining a live lecture going on in Germany. That’s what virtual reality can do for education. It is changing the way we work, learn and socialise, and it is revolutionising the world of education. The education industry is one of the biggest potentials for Virtual Reality. Students in biology can learn anatomy by understanding the body in three dimensions, a small VR device can act as a whole science lab. The Body VR is mostly used by biology students. VR can be used to engage students in the topic related to geography, history and literature by offering a deeply immersive sense of place and time. Google Expedition is one of the great examples of such an experience. Google Tilt Brush offers students a new painting experience where they can upload their designs for others to navigate through in 3D. VR experiences can blow the gap between fun and learning, which can increase students' engagement exponentially. Virtual reality can be particularly beneficial for students with special needs such as autism, researchers have found that virtual reality can be a motivating platform for the students with such needs. Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can safely participate in motivational learning programmes using virtual reality. Floreo, a technology company, has developed learning scenarios where students can participate and learn social skills such as pointing, making eye contact and making social connections.  In the future, classrooms will use virtual reality technology to greatly encourage student’s engagement and enhance learning.

Creative advertisements with customer experience.

VR is an immersive technology that helps engaging customers with the product. It brings great results in the advertisement. With the need to reach a target-specific population, the web is emerging as an all-purpose medium. The internet has become the preferred roadmap for e-commerce and consumer to consumer communication.  With VR, customers can have a better understanding of the product which helps them to make their buying decision. Especially for e-commerce, it is providing a whole new experience for the customers shopping in e-commerce websites which results in more customer engagement. As it is growing rapidly in e-commerce, it is soon to be an important part of the purchasing cycle. For example, To engage customers, Mcdonalds came up with an idea of Mcdonalds Happy Goggle. Happy goggles are made out of the metal box that McDonald sends food items into. These meal boxes can further be converted into basic VR headsets where you can enjoy “Slope Star” a 360° VR skiing game and more just by placing your smartphone inside of the headset. Virtual reality has made it possible for the companies to connect with their customers on an experiential level. For example, emersion-style test drive of cars and the brand-related product experience has brought significant benefits for companies as well as customers for making their buying decisions. Many companies are working to drive the advertisement industry forward with the potential of virtual reality. For example, Unity Technologies, a San Francisco based game development company, has worked with companies like Lionsgate to merge marketing with a high tech virtual reality experience.

Tool for training.

VR is used by the world's biggest companies to provide training experiences which are very dangerous or costly. For example, a construction company trains an employee to work all-day at a fearable height. VR can provide the exact experience that helps to deal with the fear of being at a significant height. In the same way, it will be very expensive to create infrastructure for firefighters for their live training. VR helps to create virtual infrastructure and provides them with a sense of real firefighting without a risk of death and serious injury. Virtual reality has also been adopted by the military in the UK and US for training as it allows them to undertake a huge range of simulations for a number of different situations. It is used by all branches of military services such as army, navy, air force, marine and coast guard. The military uses it for flight simulation, battlefield simulation, medical training & vehicle simulation and virtual boot camp. Virtual reality is an immersive, visual and sound-based technology, it can simply replicate real-life dangerous situations to train soldiers without putting them at risk of serious injury or death. The use of virtual reality in military services are not just limited to wars and fights. It is also used to teach soldiers some soft skills including communication with civilians and international counterparts when out in the field. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) are the key benefits of using virtual reality in training. The Office of Naval Research Global (ONRG) has recently sponsored tech-solution called Tactically Reconfigurable Artificial Combat Enhanced Reality package consists of Virtual Reality headsets, a backpack, a simulated weapon designed to deliver realistic recoil and software package for security personnel to experience. VR helps in conducting live training sessions and seminars which helps to make training sessions more interactive and productive.

Virtual tours

In industries like real estate and hotels, VR remains helpful by providing a virtual tour. Virtual reality technology opens up many opportunities for real estate businesses to market their listings in a better way. A real estate agent or an owner can provide a virtual tour of their property to clients and save time and cost. For clients, it is easy and convenient, they can have a 3-dimensional view of the property they are planning to buy or rent. The client just has to put on a virtual reality headset and experience an immersive three-dimensional tour of the property this way. Virtual reality allows realtors to add furniture and other essential items so that they look more appealing and real to the client. It visualises the architectural plan better to make clients more clear about their buying decision. It boosts the sales of under-construction properties, realtors find it difficult to market such properties because unfurnished structures and empty buildings do not attract customer attention at all. It is easy to fill this gap using virtual staging tools and architectural 3D visualization. It helps them to see the places before they are even built. Many big names in the real estate industry have adopted virtual reality technology for their better reach. For the hotel industry, guests without paying a visit can have a virtual tour which gives them the exact idea of the hotel infrastructure and facilities. It reduces the time consumption and cost of both parties involved.

Bottom Line

Initially, Virtual Reality was considered to be the tech for gaming and entertainment, but it has evolved to find its application in a variety of fields like military, medical training, education, e-commerce, healthcare etc. Virtual Reality is a multi-billion dollar industry that is growing fast every year. A recent study suggests that the Virtual Reality market will reach 100 billion USD by 2027. It will be a great help for businesses looking to improve customer engagement in 2020 and beyond. Incorporating VR in routine business operations can help businesses to increase customer engagement and reap benefits.

Author's Note

Piyush Jain is the founder and CEO of Simpalm, a mobile app and web development company in the USA. Piyush founded Simpalm in 2009 and has grown it to be a leading mobile and web development company in the DMV area. With a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins and a strong background in technology and entrepreneurship, he understands how to solve problems using technology. Under his leadership, Simpalm has delivered 300+ mobile apps and web solutions to clients in startups, enterprises and the federal sector