California retailer has virtual reality in store
Customers can go on immersive video trip to Peru
Welcome to this reality — a store where you can buy shoes, eyewear and coffee, and also take a 360-degree immersive video trip to Peru.
Shoppers at the Toms flagship store here can don Samsung’s Gear VR virtual reality goggles, which are tapped in to a Samsung phone, in what’s believed to be one of the first consumer retail VR experiences.
Virtual reality is a huge buzzword in the Hollywood and gaming communities, as folks look to eye-popping photography directly to your eyes as the next big thing and a way to get the mobile generation entranced. Facebook bought tech start-up Oculus, which works with Samsung on the Gear VR system, for $2 billion in 2014.
Toms specializes in one-to-one marketing — buy a product from Toms and it donates to people in need.
Customers’ top request has always been to “go on a giving trip,” Toms founder Blake Mycoskie says. “Now, with VR, we can take them to Peru ... and when they take the headset off, your whole world is now upside down.”
The project wasn’t cheap. He spent about $250,000 to produce the four-minute film, shot on cameras that saw in front, sideways and backward, and $1,000 each for the Gear VR setups.
The bigger cost is staffing, he says, to walk customers through the experience and talk to them afterward.
So far, VR is playing well with his customers. “Awesome,” says Brad Smith, visiting from Sacramento. “I felt like I was there. When one of the kids waved, I wanted to wave back.”
Dan Cegla, in from Portland, Ore., said the VR gave him a different experience than 2-D, “which you experience as a detached outsider. This makes you feel more connected.”
Toms has five retail stores, where the VR is set up, plus locations in outlets such as Whole Foods. There, Toms plans to bring the VR units periodically.
Tim Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, says VR will be an acquired taste for retailers until the price comes down.
“A lot of major brands will look into it, but until units are in the $100$200 range, it won’t be viable for them,”
he says.