Vision reality shopping research is increasingly being adopted by CPG companies and retailers as an efficient way to test new products and store layouts. According to an article in Brandweek, the acceptance is being driven by better technology; lower prices; expanded use of brainwave and EKG measurements on consumers to improve results; more emphasis on shopper marketing; and the growth of broadband.
For instance, a simulation program from Information Resources Inc. (IRI), which uses software from Vision Critical, creates an approximation of the interior of a Wal-Mart, a prepared foods aisle of a supermarket, and other store environments.
"We instruct respondents to shop as they normally would and ask them which displays capture the most attention," said Staci Covkin, IRI's vice president of consumer and shopper insights, recently at ARF's Re:think conference in New York. "Because it's virtual, you can change things on the fly."
She said the technology is particularly beneficial in testing new products.
"In the perfect world, we'd be testing everything in a real store environment. However, due to the time it takes to implement an effective test and get compliance with retailers, the cost is enormous," Ms. Staci said.
Raymond Burke, a marketing professor at Indiana University, predicted that vision reality shopping technology will one day redefine shopper marketing and purchasing drivers at the store level.
"We could better learn how to turn demand into purchase, which is the whole point," he said.
Virtual shopping has some limitations, according to Prof. Burke. For instance, measuring demand would be difficult for any product that "relies on a tactile experience," such as its weight. But the quality of shopping simulations has improved significantly over the last few years.
"The quality is getting so close that you couldn't tell [the difference] between it and a photograph, except when they put people in - they can't do them that well yet," Prof. Burke said.
Discussion Question: What are the merits as well as the limitations of virtual shopping research methods versus in-store research? When will virtual shopping drive product testing and store layout decisions in the future? For what purposes will in-store testing still be required?