In today’s retail industry, disruptive players such as Brandless, HelloFresh and Dollar Shave Club are forcing traditional brands and retailers to completely transform in order to stay competitive in the modern world. With almost every retailer looking for ways to improve customer experience and stay relevant, it’s important that the manufacturers behind the curtain adapt that same innovative mindset—or risk losing business to those who do.
However, as manufacturers propose new ideas to help retailers increase sales, there’s a recurring challenge: They often lack the visualization tools and data that retailers need to be sold on the idea. After all, seeing is believing, and few responsible retailers are willing to jeopardize sales on an idea that 1. they can’t see, and 2. doesn’t have a high likelihood to benefit their business. Traditional tools used by manufacturers—2D planograms, low-resolution SKU images and outdated market research methods—don’t provide retailers with the visualization capabilities and data-driven analytics that the retail industry has come to expect over the past few technologically-savvy years.
To keep up with retail’s pace of innovation, manufacturers are turning to virtual reality solutions, like our ShopperMX™ platform. Here are just a few ways our customers have used ShopperMX™ to overcome the challenges associated with pitching ideas to retail partners:
3-D Visualization
Whether it’s changing the placement of a single product or re-structuring an entire category’s layout, ShopperMX™ provides the ability to quickly and easily manipulate stores in virtual reality. A major benefit to VR is scalability. Regardless of a project’s size, you no longer have to spend time and money to visualize the final product in a mock center, or in-store. The ability to ideate and visualize concepts in virtual means that manufacturers can pitch ideas and win, and retailers can see tangible result before going to market.
Data-Driven Storytelling
We’ve heard it before: The data doesn’t lie. InContext Solutions’ research capabilities allow customers to run market research initiatives in VR. This provides a hyper-realistic, scalable test environment that removes any biasing factors (i.e. out-of-stock items, other shoppers, etc.). The result is more accurate data that yields better informed business decisions.
Category Manager + Retailer Collaboration
ShopperMX™ is the only VR solution that allows both parties – manufacturers and retailers – to work within the platform simultaneously. This capability transforms the manufacturer-retailer relationship to one of collaboration. It also increases efficiencies by eliminating back-and-forth, streamlining workflow and improving speed-to-market.
Contact us to learn more about how ShopperMX™ and InContext Solutions’ research offerings are helping brands and retailers make better business decisions.
