Sure, you can already shop without leaving the comfort of your home, but eBay is trying to take your spending addiction to the next level. Say hello to what the internet-based retailer is calling the world’s first virtual reality department store, which allows eager customers to browse through collections like clothing, electronics, and home goods as though you were actually, well, in the store. It’s the product of a partnership with Australian retailer Myer, and you can catch a glimpse of the store by downloading the app and using a headset like the Samsung Gear or Google Cardboard.
To celebrate the launch of the VR store, the two companies gave away over 15,000 “Shopticals,” which were really just specially branded Google Cardboard headsets. But if you don’t manage to snag one of these for free, don’t worry — this headset is one of the most inexpensive on the market, and will only set you back $5.95 (though you may want to put aside some extra dough for all the virtual shopping you’ll be doing with real money).
The brand new VR store boasts more than 12,500 products from Myer, which buyers can check out by way of eBay’s Sight Search technology. Rather than being inundated by all the store’s goods at once, viewers can create a unique shopping experience, picking only from categories of products they’re interested in. And the more you shop, the better your shopping experience will be — Sight Search learns its consumers preferences, which can be very dangerous for your spending habits.
When you like a product, you can place it into a virtual shopping basket, but in order to make a payment, you’ll have to step out of your virtual world and go back to the eBay app.
At the technology’s launch party earlier this week, Steve Brennen, senior director of marketing and retail innovation at eBay, noted, “Is this the next future of the retail experience? We’re kind of believing now that it could be.”
So guard your wallets, friends. Shopping has never been so easy.
