What Shopping Looks Like on the New Apple Vision Pro Headset

Today is the day Apple fans have been waiting for, as the Vision Pro headset is now available to buy. The innovative headset will impact many industries, but how does it affect the shopping experience?

According to Vogue Business, this product is expected to be the biggest mainstream market experiment for mixed-reality headsets yet, and some of the 600 new apps designed for the product are for shopping experiences from retailers like Mytheresa, J.Crew, Alo, Elf Cosmetics, and sportswear retailer Decathlon.

Global luxury e-commerce brand Mytheresa invites viewers to shop in an immersive Capri beachside or nighttime setting in Paris with the sound of waves and seagulls or a very real-life-looking 3D Eiffel Tower. Customers can also opt for a less immersive experience and leave the background transparent so they can see their natural environment. Shoppers can then choose “Shop the Edit” to scroll through items that have been put together for the environment, directing their actions using eye and hand controls.

Isabel May, chief customer experience officer at Mytheresa, says, “When you go fully immersive, and you see the sun, and you see the sea moving and hear the seagulls — it is a one-of-a-kind experience.” Mytheresa is strategically catering to customers who have plenty of money to spend. The first 200,000 units of the Apple Vision Pro sold out in a presale on Jan. 19, each priced at $3,500, which means that “high-value potential customers are getting a first pass.”

Virtual reality shopping has been in scope for some time, but no one has paved the way into this space until now. A combination of the technology and the user behavior has to be right for it to work, and while it is yet to be seen whether the Vision Pro will be integrated into our day-to-day lives like the smartphone and the smartwatch, Apple’s investment in the space has got partners interested in seeing where this can go.

CEO and founder of virtual store platform Obsess, Neha Singh, who worked with brands to create their Vision Pro experiences, said, “This is the moment we have all been waiting for.” She added, “The quality and interaction you are able to get is unprecedented in terms of resolution and how you can see products realistically in larger-than-life scale and be completely immersed in a brand environment. It’s definitely the closest, or the next best thing, to seeing a product in person in a store.”

According to Cathy Hackl, an Apple Vision Pro developer and co-CEO of Spatial Dynamics, a new spatial computing and artificial intelligence solutions firm, there will be lots of testing when it comes to transitioning the shopping experience into spatial computing. She predicts that some brands will give an initial look into what future immersive shopping experiences can look like, while others will just mirror what they have been doing on the web. She also anticipates that brands might set up pop-up apps for the Vision Pro for major events like fashion week. She stated, “The way we shop in person is not static. The brands that understand this will help prove the value of spatial retail experiences.”

As brands and influencers seek ways to strengthen and expand their influence, it appears that shoppers can expect more experimentation in 2024 and beyond. The challenge lies in determining whether customers will actually make purchases.