What are Alibaba and JD.com’s VR+ shopping waiting for?

This April Fool's Day, the VR shopping lab (Buy+ project) proposed by Alibaba really made the physical stores tremble. Alibaba's strength in online shopping is beyond doubt. Now it has come up with the idea of ​​virtual shopping, which can eliminate concerns such as "what if the clothes don't fit" and "it's better to touch than to see". This concept will subvert the traditional way of shopping, but Buy+ is just a feint. After the news was released and the press conference was held, there was no subsequent action, which made the concerns of physical stores seem redundant. Not long after Alibaba's Buy+ plan, JD.com, another big player in the e-commerce industry, launched the same project plan on September 5. The "VR Shopping Galaxy" application was open to third-party platforms and related industry alliances were established, dedicated to creating the best VR/AR e-commerce experience. Compared with the news released by Alibaba on April Fool's Day, JD.com was quite sincere in terms of timing.

JD.com's VR/AR strategy conference has caused quite a stir, thanks to Alibaba's early preparations. Everyone wants to see if JD.com will make any big moves. It's not true to say that everyone is watching the VR+ shopping of Alibaba and JD.com with a mentality of watching the fun. More people are watching the emergence of VR with a curious attitude. Seeing the advent of VR glasses and the improvement of VR in games, real estate, education and other fields, e-commerce is eager to try. For users who have been watching from the sidelines, domestic low-priced VR glasses can be used as a test, and those who watch movies and play games can be left idle. As for e-commerce companies like Alibaba and JD.com wanting to connect with VR, users are still very much looking forward to it.

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Just like what is said in the Ali Buy+ promotional video, you no longer have to go shopping every Monday, every two weeks, go shopping with your wife at the mall during the holidays, and carry a lot of bags home; just as mentioned in JD VR shopping galaxy, you don’t have to think hard in your mind about what kind of sofa will match the decoration style of your home when you go to the furniture store. VR+ shopping is definitely a very good business opportunity for e-commerce, and for consumers, it also eliminates many worries of traditional online shopping, and you can have everything you need without leaving home. Both Ali and JD have proposed such a perfect idea, but why is it still just an idea?

To truly realize the VR+shopping effect in the promotional video, VR glasses are indispensable, and there will even be additional equipment such as head displays, handle gloves, carpets, etc. Although VR is hot now, and there is no shortage of manufacturers of VR equipment and content, the speed of user adoption is far slower than the speed of manufacturers' rise. The hardware equipment is not perfect yet, and the user experience is not high . Some users who want to buy VR home are worried about dizziness, eye fatigue, heavy VR glasses that make the bridge of the nose sore, headaches, etc., and dare not buy it home. Even users who don't worry about these physiological problems and still want to try it out are deterred by the pricing of VR. Ultimately, most consumers can only watch VR from afar and watch various VR manufacturers compete fiercely for it.

In addition to the fact that output devices are not widely available, there is also heavyweight content that cannot be implemented.

The reason why it is heavyweight is not because of how important the content is, but because of a huge number of content groups waiting to be converted to VR. Alibaba and JD.com both mentioned modeling in the press conference. E-commerce is not like the houses sold in real estate, which are large enough and look similar. E-commerce has a wide range of items, from a hair band, nail clippers, and spoons to a computer, a bed, and a vertical air conditioner. Not to mention the unimaginable number of products, both Alibaba and JD.com have merchants settled in, and the real implementation of modeling on merchants, whether it is official funding or individual merchants bearing the modeling costs alone, the cost is a considerable amount.

JD.com must have learned from the difficulty of modeling mentioned by Alibaba, so it proposed to "make tools" to complete the scanning and modeling steps. This is indeed a good suggestion. Although there will still be costs, it is much better than having no tools. But are merchants really willing to use this tool for modeling and integrate into the ranks of VR+ shopping?

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This might be a terrifying thing to think about.

Maybe there needs to be a starting point, maybe it is more appropriate to say that the pilot object. The first wave of pilot objects should start with categories with high experience, such as home furnishings, and online home furnishing merchants will also be happy to be the pilot objects. After all, items like sofas and beds are more reliable after being tried in person. Consumers can buy with confidence using VR, and merchants will make money happily. Other merchants will also be eager to follow suit and start modeling to integrate into the ranks of VR+ shopping. However, who will pay for the cost of modeling? Consumers may not be able to see a slight increase in the price of each item, because by then, the prices of all items entering the VR ranks will be increased. For some merchants who really don’t need VR to physically sell small commodities, they can only stay in the traditional online shopping channel.

Let's talk about the videos released by Alibaba and JD.com. There are a lot of interactions in both of them. However, interaction is a pain point in the bumpy road of VR+shopping. To realize the action interaction in the video, it is inevitable to use some VR equipment. The equipment is not popular, so no matter how good the interaction is, it has nowhere to show. Not to mention that the current interactive technology is in its infancy, and it is really difficult to achieve the smooth interactive actions in the video.

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As for whether more private information is vulnerable to attacks and leaks, that is a matter for the future. If the many problems mentioned above cannot be solved, VR+shopping will probably be difficult to become popular in a year or so, and physical stores don’t need to worry about it for the time being. However, as a consumer, it is really a wonderful thing to be able to try on clothes and buy comfortable home furnishings at home without leaving the house. If VR can also sense smells, restaurants may also start to get excited.

Then I thought, if everyone stayed at home and was unwilling to queue up to pay at the mall, there would be no customers waiting for tables in the restaurant, and everyone would have a look of indifference on their face, I really don't want to think about it anymore, it would be better to have some liveliness.