How to Use Virtual Reality in Business: 12 Best Examples
There are many ways to show the audience your company’s mission and values, but the virtual reality in business opens a new dimension of possibilities. There is no situation you cannot make up using virtual reality, and there is no emotion you cannot share through the virtually moderated world. It opens many doors for business owners and marketers, who use this opportunity in all possible ways. In this article, we will tell you everything about virtual reality in business, from the benefits and best examples to future development and the steps of implementing it in your company.
What Is Virtual Reality
Virtual reality in business refers to a simulated experience that makes people see and feel unreal situations similar to real ones using virtual reality headsets, which can transform one business side of things or another. The developers make this possible using technology and generating realistic images. The most popular way of developing virtual reality settings is by using virtual reality headsets and multi-projected environments.
Difference Between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
VR technology is often confused with the similar one — augmented reality technology. Even though both are working for the same goal — to make people experience unbelievable emotions using virtual settings, they have one core difference.
- Augmented reality is the way of placing virtual 3D images into the usual settings of users with the help of a technology device, usually a smartphone.
- Virtual reality, on the other hand, immerses a person in virtual settings and makes them see and feel the experiences that the company wants them to see. As a result, virtual reality is a common way businesses integrate this kind of technology into their audience’s life.
VR Market Share
Grand View Research reported the expected growth of virtual reality in the US market. In 2020 the virtual reality market was estimated at $3.3B, which is expected to grow by 14.4% by 2030. In the last couple of years, when the COVID pandemic impacted global businesses, the VR/AR industry was growing. International companies are taking an interest in the VR industry. For instance, Apple Inc. recently purchased NestVR, a startup company making VR solutions.
How Virtual Reality Is Used in Business
Virtual reality businesses are making various solutions for companies globally to choose the best way to use VR for their industry, market, and audience. Let’s review how various companies utilize VR in their business projects.
Metaverse
Metaverse refers to the immersive virtual world, which can be facilitated using VR and/or AR technologies. Users can navigate the metaverse using eye movements, controllers, or voice commands, and virtual reality headsets create a feeling of presence in virtual settings. Metaverse has a range of applications in the business domain, from creating corporate environments to facilitating work-related communication or conducting employee training sessions.
Employee Training and Education
It’s not a colossal surprise that VR found a way to improve the HR industry in several ways. The HR specialists focus on improving employee productivity, training, and development in the long run. Imagine how much easier they can be if the employees could experience all the situations they read about in the handbooks. Similarly, VR can be a game-changing factor in shaping how students interact with learning materials if simulated in the virtual world. Although it’s a step-by-step process, universities and educational organizations are discovering ways to integrate virtual reality into any study field, from biology to history.
Data Visualization
Another way the businesses tried to use VR is by integrating it into their research and data analytics processes. Virtual reality developers thought of making data visualization easier by making immersive data boards. Gathering data and showing research results doesn’t have to be all about numbers; it is much easier to see the results using images and videos. Also, this doesn’t only apply to the integral usage of data boards. Some companies show the results of their research publicly. For instance, you can see this New York Times example.
Manufacturing
Virtual reality business applications change the manufacturing industry tremendously. Car manufacturers are probably the most prominent example of using virtual reality in all stages of product development. The VR is used in the modeling stage to make the process easier and faster for the engineers, but it is also used for marketing purposes, like in the virtual reality car showroom. Curiously, the VR industry also improved the safety of workers in the manufacturing industry. That’s because virtual reality allows for creating a simulation of production operations, giving the possibility to point out the potentially dangerous spots.
Virtual Showrooms in Retail
Did you know how much sales are influenced by the inability of customers to see or try products properly? Sometimes accessing the physical shops may be hard for your target audience, and they either choose not to travel far or cannot take time to visit the shop from their job. Virtual reality showrooms solve both of these problems. They give a way to see the products from the comfort of your home from every angle and perspective. Imagine how useful they were when almost every business had to close physical shops due to COVID.
Marketing
The ads are where marketers can use VR technology to the fullest. Making the brands visible in the market with virtual reality becomes more effortless and allows them to stand out among the competitors. Almost all big retail companies started using VR technology, from making virtual showrooms to giving users a way to see their products in virtual settings and learn all the benefits.
Design and Modeling
If you talk to any development team, you’d recognize that modeling is a crucial step in product development. Virtual reality makes modeling easier, allowing the designers to make integrative 3D images of their ideas. VR technologies as a whole can revolutionize the way designers interact with their day-to-day tasks. With a steady transition of work responsibilities into virtual environments, design and modeling assignments change their shape rapidly.
Benefits of Using VR in Business
There’s a reason why VR businesses prosper nowadays. The benefits they provide to their customers are endless, and the recognition they get for that pays off in companies’ success. We selected three main ones for you to check.
Competitive advantage
The most beneficial thing VR gives businesses is the ability to stand out among their competitors. In the modern world, hardly any business is unique enough to say that no company can offer something similar to what they do. So marketers and business owners are constantly fighting for their audience’s attention. And this audience will most likely choose something fresh and new that sparks emotions and makes them excited to try the product.
Resource-efficiency
Even though you have to invest in VR technology solutions, you will still gain a decent ROI. That’s because virtual reality eases lots of processes and saves much time that if you look back at the start of using it, you will understand how many expenses were cut off. Moreover, the increase in sales after implementing VR into your business strategy makes companies gain more money.
Time-efficiency
We must admit that technology can do everything faster and better than we do. Take VR training as one of the best examples of saving time. Instead of designing individual training materials, just prepare everything in VR and scale your training plan to the target audience. Or consider the construction project, for instance. You can control the construction process remotely using VR planning sessions, saving time for flights and offline meetings. Since time is money, capitalize on VR technologies to transform how much time you spend conducting routine tasks.
Best Examples of VR in Business
VR in business found a way to leak into every industry and settle there. You can see how it works from the best examples we chose.
Construction: Build Change
A good example of VR in construction is the non-profit organization Build Change. The company uses VR to help businesses in developing countries see the construction project’s detailed prototype before starting work. This way, companies can understand project needs better and develop the processes more thoroughly.
Ecommerce: Shopify’s Thread Studio
Shopify found an intelligent way to make the user experience on the website more personalized and increase sales altogether. They managed it by creating a virtual reality photo studio where users can visit, upload their photos and see them on the virtual mannequins before buying.
Gaming: Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-Ality
Games are all about fun and excitement, though VR makes them only better. A fun example is the Rick and Morty VR application, where the virtual reality simulator takes you on a journey with two favorite characters.
Healthcare: FundamentalVR
FundamentalVR was named one of Time Magazine’s best inventions for 2018, and for a good reason. This invention allows surgeons to go through virtual operations while still learning in medical school. So imagine how much better doctors are prepared when they enter the real room.
Travel and Tourism: Central Park
There are so many places in the world one would like to visit that sometimes it is hard to imagine it is possible in a lifetime. Virtual reality can easily change that by allowing people to travel through the world’s attractions from the comfort of their homes, like this fantastic tour through New York’s Central Park.
Automobile: Toyota’s TeenDrive365
Used with Oculus Rift, enhanced with 3D graphics and animation, Toyota’s virtual reality simulator allows you to try driving the car using technology. Moreover, the application has a fundamental goal, showing people what happens if you ignore safety rules while driving.
Interior Design: Live Home 3D
Imagine if you could make an interior of your apartment using the technology before bringing any type of design to real walls. The Live Home 3D allows doing the virtual reality prototype of your apartment and decorate it however you please, and you will only need the app and your device.
Education: Google Expeditions
Google’s virtual reality tool takes geography to the next level. The platform allows tours of any location from Madagascar to the ocean’s deep waters. You can explore different subjects from the Science of Superheroes to the incredible worlds of Leonardo da Vinci.
Entertainment: Disney Movies VR
The most prominent players in the entertainment industry decided to take on VR for business audiences to enjoy. So, Disney created a platform where you can watch virtual reality movies. For instance, now you can watch Coco VR and go into the virtual world of experiences a business provides.
Sports: UEFA Champions League
Sports fans are pushing for their favorite sports teams to have a live experience that is not always possible, and VR can change that. For instance, for the UEFA Champions League final in 2017, BT Sport broadcasted the 360-degree VR game via YouTube.
Fashion and Beauty: Rebecca Minkoff
In 2017, fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff decided to make VR part of her business strategy. First, the brand started organizing virtual reality shows as part of Fashion Week. Then, the marketers moved VR to the shops and allowed customers to take a look at the store settings from home.
Real Estate: Virtual Hotel
Wouldn’t you want to know the hotel you will stay in for your trip? The Virtual Hotel app allows you to see the virtual settings of the hotel and make a more thoughtful decision when booking.
What Is the Future of Virtual Reality in Business?
Due to the benefits it provides, virtual reality is here to stay. The report made by Vynzresearch states that the virtual reality market will see a 48.8% growth CAGR by 2025. Only in 2021 sales of virtual reality headsets jump to 7 million units. It shows that demand for VR is high, and the companies have to keep producing more solutions for the companies to choose from. Businesses will try to invest in VR as much as they can because of how much employees like to use immersive technology in their workplace. Also, the industries that will prosper more till 2024 are training ($4.1 billion), industrial maintenance ($4.1 billion), and retail showcasing ($2.7 billion).
How to Implement VR in Your Business Step-By-Step
Implementing VR doesn’t seem so scary after you know all the steps you have to take.
- The most important is the research to lay the ground for the successive VR solution. When you analyze the market, your audience’s needs, and the possible solutions, you can plan the budget, team, and time needed to complete the project.
- Knowing all the information, you can move to the development stage. The team of specialists you gathered will follow through with the project and help make the right solution based on your prototype.
- After the project is done, your work is not done. Now, you have to launch the solution and analyze the results. Once done with this step, you can gain the data needed to decide if you should continue adding virtual reality to your business strategy.
If you go through the steps, you can decide if you should hire an in-house team of VR specialists and make virtual reality a permanent solution in your brand. Before that, you can use the help of professionals that will do a quality job for you. WE/AR Studio can lead you through the process of making a solution and help you decide what your company needs are and how much time and cost it will take. Contact us at hello@wear-studio.com, and one of the specialists will consult you on further actions.
