What is a VR Tour? Being Able to Feel Close to the Real Experience Even Though You Are Far Away
VR, short for “Virtual Reality,” refers to the artificial creation of images and spaces that can be seen and heard as if they were real. It offers an experience that is as close to reality as possible.
With a VR tour, you can provide an immersive experience that feels close to the real thing while showcasing facilities, services, and more. Particularly, with the rise of infectious diseases, VR tours have gained popularity as they allow for service delivery even in situations where physical travel is difficult.
Moreover, by wearing VR goggles, you can recreate a 360-degree field of view, providing a sense of reality that is almost indistinguishable from the actual experience. While entertainment such as gaming and live music events initially drove the adoption of VR, it is now being utilized by businesses and schools.
What are the 5 Reasons Why VR Tours are Becoming More Popular?
The primary reason for the growing popularity of VR tours is the prevalence of infectious diseases. With the need to limit physical contact and avoid large gatherings, opportunities for events have decreased significantly. However, with VR tours, you can reach a large audience without the need for face-to-face interaction.
There are several positive reasons contributing to the popularity of VR tours:
- Making your product stand out
- Interacting with customers
- Increasing conversion rate
- Increasing retention rate
- Avoiding face-to-face contact
Understanding these reasons behind the widespread adoption of VR tours will help you see the benefits of implementing VR in your business. Let’s take a closer look at each reason.
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Reason 1: Making Your Product Stand Out
The first reason VR tours are popular is that they allow you to make your product more noticeable. By showcasing your products or services through immersive visuals, you can make them stand out. The ability to present items in a three-dimensional, lifelike manner allows you to recreate the experience of having the product right in front of the viewer. This is particularly effective when you have specific products or objects you want to highlight and intentionally promote.
Reason 2: Interacting with Customers
The second reason VR tours have gained popularity is that they enable interaction with customers. Unlike traditional virtual tours, VR tours offer more than just a street view. By incorporating embedded videos and explanatory pop-ups, you can enhance the interactive experience within the tour, leading to a deeper understanding and connection with your customers.
Reason 3: Increasing Conversion Rate
The third reason VR tours are becoming more popular is their ability to increase conversion rates. With VR, you can create a compelling experience that allows customers to virtually handle and examine products. This immersive experience serves as a significant motivator for purchasing decisions, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates.
In traditional door-to-door sales, allowing customers to physically touch and feel products is considered a technique that increases purchase rates. With VR tours, you can achieve the same effect.
Reason 4: Increasing Retention Rate
The fourth reason VR tours are on the rise is their ability to increase retention rates. Retention refers to the percentage of new users who return to use a web service or app within a certain period of time.
Engaging with customers through immersive visuals and eye-catching content can leave a lasting impression. By providing captivating content, you can significantly increase the time visitors spend on your site. As a result, the flow towards purchases or service utilization becomes smoother.
Reason 5: Avoiding Face-to-Face Contact
The fifth reason VR tours are gaining popularity is their ability to avoid face-to-face contact. Given the current circumstances where large gatherings, meetings, and events require extra caution, VR tours offer a solution. By utilizing VR tours, you can present your services or business without the need for physical interaction. This allows you to reach a large audience without concerns about infection, making it an ideal solution for the current times.
What are the 6 VR Tour Implementation Examples?
VR tours have the potential to expand business opportunities, and here are 6 case studies to illustrate their implementation:
Case 1: Promotion of Tourist Destinations and Travel Experiences
VR tours have found initial success in the tourism industry, going beyond simple virtual experiences of tourist destinations. They have been used for:
- Previewing travel destinations
- Previewing hotel accommodations
- Virtual travel experiences for those unable to physically travel
- Virtual travel experiences for those who cannot accompany others on a trip (e.g., elderly individuals)
JTB, a Japanese travel agency, released “Virtual School Trip 360,” which allows students to experience canceled school trips virtually. Created with the aim of providing alternative opportunities to create memories for students whose school trips were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Kyoto and Nara Edition” has been widely adopted and highly praised. Following the success of the “Kyoto and Nara Edition,” additional editions for “Nikko” and “Okinawa” have also been released.
VR tours have also been implemented in museums and art galleries, allowing visitors to experience art and historical artifacts as if they were right in front of them, generating a desire to see these items in person.
Case 2: Office and Facility Tours
VR tours have been utilized for showcasing offices and facilities, offering virtual tours for those who cannot visit in person. Examples include:
- Showcasing office spaces for recruitment purposes
- Campus tours for schools and universities
- Facility tours for funeral homes
- Venue tours for wedding halls
- Showcasing the atmosphere and interior of shops and tutoring centers
By incorporating comments and videos during the tour, you can enhance the promotional effect. This approach helps create familiarity with your business, ultimately increasing the chances of customers physically visiting your establishment.
Case 3: On-Site Tour of Real Estate
VR tours have become quite popular for showcasing rental properties and real estate, offering a significant benefit of saving time. Without the need for physical travel, you can showcase multiple properties in one go. Even for properties that are still under construction, VR tours can provide a virtual experience of the finished product.
Moreover, VR tours can facilitate efficient communication between construction project managers and clients. Both parties can meet virtually within the VR space, making decisions and finalizing details. This streamlines the process and contributes to cost savings in terms of staff and rental expenses.
Case 4: Guide to EC Site
VR tours can also be used to guide customers to e-commerce (EC) sites. Prominent brands such as BEAMS have already begun deploying virtual shops. By offering the feeling of having real products in front of them, customers are more inclined to make purchases. Additionally, VR tours provide the convenience of 24/7 accessibility, delivering the ambiance and world of your shop directly to users. This contributes to cost savings in terms of personnel and rental expenses.
Case 5: Service Experience
VR tours have also been utilized to provide experiential learning in various fields, such as:
- Golf lessons and personal training
- Language lessons, including English and Chinese
Case 6: Staff Training
Previously, staff training relied heavily on on-site learning. However, VR tours now allow for staff training without physical presence. This is particularly valuable in the healthcare industry, where surgeries and practical training can be experienced through VR. The cost savings and convenience offered by VR tours extend beyond healthcare, benefiting fields such as caregiving and construction, which often face labor shortages. VR tours enable repeated training sessions with consistent quality.
Summary: Seize New Business Opportunities by Introducing VR Tours
The use of VR tours in business is expected to continue expanding. However, implementing VR tours requires specialized technical knowledge and expertise.
At HOPELIVS, we offer the capability to scan and capture real spaces, such as properties and facilities, using special cameras. This enables 3D scanning and 360-degree imaging, allowing for VR viewing on websites and smartphones. Moreover, with our technology, we can create VR tours and virtual experiences through our service called “HOPE360.” VR tours have already been widely adopted by numerous companies. Consider exploring the potential of VR tours and seize new business opportunities.
VR tours hold infinite possibilities. By implementing them, you can unlock new business ventures.
