8 Advantages of Virtual Reality in Business

Get to the Moon via virtual reality headset, try a VR time travel experience, or have a Coca-Cola Christmas adventure with Santa’s reindeer? Of course, such super features will not leave anyone indifferent.

In this post, OpenGeeksLab has provided new practical tools to take advantages of virtual reality in business.

What Is Virtual Reality Technology?

Virtual reality is amongst the technologies that have existed as early as the 1960s. Today it is making a comeback into many forms of our daily lives—this high-end simulated experience created by using digital hardware and software to provide real-world experience. Headsets and glasses are used for visual immersion while handhelds and wearables offer tactile sensations. Many leading brands, like Microsoft, Sony, Intel, are already deploying VR to power up their digital marketing efforts.

Benefits of Applying VR to Your Business

Engagement and inspiration are among the major reasons why leading brands create VR marketing experiences. Considering these benefits of virtual reality in business, your company will stand at the technological forefront and will draw the audience’s attention.

1. Revolutionize the ‘Try Before You Buy’ Concept

As more and more retail companies are integrating VR/AR technologies into the customer experience, the concept of ‘try-before-you-buy’ vastly expands. ‘Look before you book,’ ‘Try before you fly’—all that immerses the customers in the unique product experience. Are you going to buy a car? Volvo offers you to try its VR test drive on your phone. Searching for new shoes? Lacoste created AR mobile app that customers could use to try on shoes virtually. That is the perfect marketing combo.

2. Introduce Established Products to New Audiences

Quality VR/AR content brings your product presentation to a new level. It is a cool way to show off your products or services as well as create a much more interactive shopping experience. It allows customers to consume the content in a more immersive environment that creates an emotional connection with them.

How to present your product in a new way? Let’s see how other companies do it. Patrón tequila company created a new marketing project combining live-action and computer graphics. It is a 360-degree journey following the product lifecycle from agave field straight to the bar. This is good example of how you can honestly give an inside look at the process of creating product for audience in both entertaining and educational ways.

3. Prototyping and Design

Twenty years ago, developing some products from concept through to launch was very expensive, time-consuming, and risky. Technological advances had changed this algorithm, its focus had shifted to fast development iterations. Today we have great abilities to prototype and test cheaper and faster than ever before.

Prototyping is the best means to prevent wasting your time. In other words, it provides a set of approaches and special tools for exploring ideas, furthermore, testing it before excessive resource usage. Instead of spending time and money without a 100% guarantee of desired results, prototyping suggests using an experimental model for testing your idea. As a form of research, it allows exploring problems in interfaces and services for crafting to perfection.

Industries That Will Benefit from Applying Virtual Reality

1. Healthcare and Well-Being

VR/AR offers doctors some new possibilities for finding innovative treatments. So there are vast benefits of virtual reality in medicine. An augmented-reality surgical navigation system was designed to give surgeons ‘X-ray vision’ during complex spine surgery medical operation. Virtual reality in medical field could help properly treat phobia or anxiety. It could help overcome real-life scenarios that cause fear. It is a good chance to have a virtual walking along a high bridge with coach guidance to overcome a fear of heights. VR pediatrics could help kids get through their treatments as painlessly as possible. Also, such digital tools have application areas in physical therapy as well as rehabilitation.

Virtually rendered operating rooms and virtual modeling of organs and human anatomy are great platforms for immersive education of medical students. Minimization of risks and more efficient productivity are two primary goals when it comes to virtual reality in healthcare.

2. Entertainment and Gaming

Entertainment and gaming have been pioneers where VR and AR have been applied. Unique gaming experiences are not possible without such platforms. Here people can immerse in a 3D virtual reality entertainment environment and interact with each other during a game. More importantly, the social aspect of gaming has become an integral part of a game that transformed it into place where people can hang out in chat rooms. Walking around in Guild Halls to talk with other WoW gamers instead of actively playing—that is what gaming social VR platforms are about.

VR entertainment includes also virtual galleries, theaters, cinemas, theme parks, museums. Now it is even possible to touch untouched museum exhibits via VR tools. Such renowned sculptures, like Head of Nefertiti or David by Michelangelo, have already been replicated in virtual space. You could touch it with gloves that are able to represent different materials, furthermore, allow receiving haptic feedback. That is brand new experience for blind and visually impaired people.

Moreover, music VR experience allows living superstars’ life a little bit. Just pop on a pair of virtual reality goggles and get ready to play your guitar solo.

3. Tourism

Considering the popularity of services like Google Street View today, it is not difficult to predict that visualization of upcoming trips will be in high demand. VR in tourism industry has lots of usage vectors. Travelling is, first of all, about impressions. Therefore, virtual pre-opportunity to find yourself among imaginary amazing landscapes or in the cozy hotel room would be a cool engine in your project. Your travel website or app could allow users to create an individual virtual tour in their favorite destinations. Travelling VR projects have already been developed: walking around the desired area, even hearing its sounds, riding a boat, or going to the top of the mountain—all that becomes possible.

4. Retail

Virtual and augmented technologies are serious game-changers in the retail industry, both online and in-store. They allow creating a more engaging experience that simulates physical retail stores in online retailing. As shop design becomes much more intelligent, virtual reality in retail space can have a measurable impact. Kinect fitting rooms in clothing stores might be a perfect fit for upgrading retail store design.

In-Store AR Navigation offers a new way to navigate within stores. This mobile app provides AR routing so customers can quickly find places where desired items. Another popular app is AR-overlaid product information: point your phone camera at products and check out detailed information.

Combined with digital technologies, retail marketing becomes interactive and practical.

5. Education and Training Programs

Real environment simulation is one of the most crucial benefits of virtual reality in education and training. Just imagine history classes with animated timelines function, visualized chronicles events, or fascinating geography lessons with trips across the continents. Lenovo VR offers VR classrooms with more than 700 virtual journeys from Google Expeditions. VR and AR technologies transform old pieces of information into much more interactive, memorable ways. That all supercharge students with curiosity and motivation.

Вesides motivation and creativity of VR lessons, there are some more essential advantages of VR in education. Learners can be engaged in an environment reflecting actual scenarios, even extreme or dangerous, with safe training conditions. Working on high or fire safety VR training simulators are prime examples of the benefits of VR in education. That is an optimal protected virtual environment where learners are experiencing the results of their actions without the risk and fatal errors.

6. Production-Driven Businesses and Automotive Industry

Implementing VR in automotive industry allows reducing time and saving costs. Examples of the newest automotive applications include vehicle design, manufacturing workstation optimization, assembly training.

VR is a must for industrial automation and remote assistance development. It gives digital opportunities for remote supervision, real-time instructions, object manipulation, as well as enables enterprises to automate production lines or troubleshoot issues in real-time. Such software could be deployed to multiple users, which enhances remote employees’ ability to work simultaneously. VR social platform allows collaborating in virtual reality from remote locations.

VR training helps workers quickly and safely prepare themselves for new machinery.

7. VR and Architecture

Digital tech development is a breakthrough in building modeling. Creating immersive experiences in real estate and architectural design becomes more advanced and quality. Blueprints and building layouts cannot convey an idea in such a way as VR for architectural visualization stuff can do.

Real estate agents know that the best way aiding customers to make purchases is by showing apartments from the front door to the attic. That is one of the reasons they host virtual reality home tours. Buyers could step into a virtual home and look around with a 360-degree view walking up spiral staircases and gauging furnishings.

Except for virtual reality real estate tours, AR/VR-driven technologies also improved an interior and landscape design.

Adding more facets of real-life to VR architectural visualization are good options for exterior design apps. VR Gardens App, as an interactive planner, offers users to design and buy their outdoor dream space via digital design tools.

8. Sports

VR in the sports sector has taken hold for years. Just remember the consoles and eSports with virtual reality sports training. Renowned sports brands allow sports enthusiasts to try new digital experiences. Juventus F.C. created the Juventus VR app in collaboration with Samsung that allows standing next to Ronaldo while training, celebrating winning in the locker room, or watching goal moment as close to the football field. This is, of course, mostly about fun. In terms of practical context, let’s check VR sports training like racing with motion, force feed, manual shifters just like a real car, skydive, bungee jumping, skiing. Users who are wearing VR simulators can check mountain slopes or try climbing wall.

Power Up Your Business with VR

Let yourself actively participate in the journey, where VR transforms business and private routines. If you want to power up your business with VR, now’s the time!

OpenGeeksLab is here to support your cause! Just drop us a line!