3D Virtual Shopping

Kinset is bringing in the 3D virtual store to replicate the real shopping experience.

Do you find shopping online to be a flat experience? That may well be changing. Kinset has brought 3D shopping to the Internet.   The company announcedyesterday that it was introducing its trademark 3D Shopping Technology which will give online stores the look and feel of their real world counterparts, right down to aisles, browsing and the abilityto make purchases just as you would in a real store.

“Customers—and merchants—are trying to bridge the online and real world. Today, customers get a completely differentexperience online and in-store, learning two completely different navigation paradigms. Using Kinset, retailers can bathe online customers in the in-store experience, as they ‘walk’ through an online store. With product placement and displays mimicking stores, customers familiar with the physical store quickly find what they want online as their eyes scan the merchandise.Customers unfamiliar with the physical store are now trained for their visit, and won’t feel lost when they walk through the door. Earlier attempts at building 3D online stores couldn’thandle the thousands of items on display in real stores. Kinset Stores are handling the volume of products,” said Susan Aldrich, SVP/Senior Consultant and retail industry analyst for thePatricia Seybold Group in a press release.

Brookstone has already begun working with Kinset to be the first retailer to replicate its stores online.  The technology is currently in a public beta period, meaning shoppers can try it out via the Kinset site after downloading the Kinset Shopping Browser. At present, any purchases made are beingdelivered by Amazon. However, to check it out you’ll need a broadband connection, Winds XP or Vista, and at least 1 GB of system memory.