Retail! Retail! Retail!: Boulanger Opens Store in SL with IBM; VirtualEShopping Launches 3D Mall

The French retail company Boulanger announced today the opening of a store in Second Life with development and planning help from IBM Research and Global Business Services. The goal is to complement Boulanger's physical stores and website with an additional distribution channel and additional services. Initially the build allows users to view and interact with Boulanger objects in a familiar context, click to be taken to the purchase page on a website, watch service and repair videos, or talk directly to a maintenance aide.

IBM says it had two objectives in the build: "develop a community aspect through the 3D universe and propose new services (configuration of kitchen, cooking lessons, guides, etc.) -- while integrating the three complementary distribution channels."

So far retail hasn't really taken off as a use for virtual worlds, particularly with big pricetag items like Boulanger's specialties of "leisure, multimedia and households products." The relatively high barrier to entry for Second Life (I had to download a new version after clicking on the SLURL from the press release) doesn't help much either.

As for the functionality of the build itself, most of it is in French, so I can't speak (or read) too much about the user experience. I was able to browse around, hop in a helicopter (and crash several times), and go dancing by myself. I also picked up a few virtual household items and clicked through to the 2D website after looking at a coffee pot. I'm not sure if it would make it easier for me to make a purchase decision, but the community aspect remains to be seen.

What I do find interesting is that the announcement refers to Boulanger's entry into the "3D Universe," not just Second Life, and that "The objective for 2009 is to create an even greater interaction between the store, the website and the 3D Universe."

I'm, admittedly, skeptical about the idea of 3D shopping right now, at least when aimed at adults.There's not a mainstream consumer penetration that makes it particularly attractive to me. I love the idea of social shopping and think it could be significant even within the next few years, though, so I'm hoping to follow up with IBM and Boulanger soon to hear more about their plans. Until then, it sounds like it might be an effort to test the waters with a new application.

"Retailers have to explore new and creative digital channels to reach today's intelligent and informed consumer,"  Colin Parris, vice president, Digital Convergence, IBM, said in a statement. "Boulanger's use of the virtual worlds demonstrates the company's capability to transcend traditional boundaries to provide an immersive and interactive shopping experience for customers."

All the "Fun" of the Real Mall

While writing reading over the Boulanger announcement, I also received an announcement about the opening VirtualEShopping.com, "the world's first virtual, 3D shopping mall" where "Realistic 3-D imagery and audio simulating the sounds of a mall make roaming the virtual mall at VirtualEShopping.com a remarkably lifelike experience, except shoppers won’t have to endure bad weather, high gas prices, traffic and crowded parking lots."

Granted, the background audio of a mall--in this case, a loop of low rumbles from cars, conversations, barking, and squealing children--is never my favorite part of the experience. And I'm not sure what the appeal is there for a simulated environment on my desktop, and I was certainly enjoying myself much more listening to John Hartford before his gentle banjo plucking was drowned out.

Unfortunately, while the company had the foresight to  include "The background noise in the mall is too loud. How do I turn it down?" in the FAQ, the answer is that you can't tweak the options unless you go through the registration process, whereas I signed in as a guest.

That's, ultimately, the kicker to me. VirtualEShopping runs as its own program. That could allow it for custom UI, best-in-class experience, etc. But the value proposition isn't that attractive, I'm guessing, to most target users to download an 11.5MB install file, register, wait several minutes while stores load in the mall, and then begin customizing their avatars (only available after registration) and building up a friends list.

In return they get a collection of "storefronts" that link back to 2D Web pages with, it looks like, a referral code in place. On the upside, you can collect coupons and find content from stores based on specific cities so "shoppers can preview stores in places they plan to move or visit."

I have noticed, after all, that the Best Buy here in Austin is significantly different from the one I've had to visit several times in San Francisco.

VirtualEShopping's business model revolves around selling advertising at $.10/clickthrough to a 2D website.

3D Shopping as the Holy Grail

The idea of shopping in a virtual world predates the latest cycle of virtual world development, but I think it's successfully gaining traction this time around. It isn't, though, as these two projects are, always aimed at adults. I expect virtual shopping to take off in the same way that most consumer-targeted virtual efforts have so far: with the kids.

I don't just mean in shopping for virtual goods, though that's pretty hard to ignore, but for real products. AllPosters.com, for example, is working with both Planet Cazmo and HangOut. The method is a good one to pay attention to as well. Just as we saw with major brand campaigns virtual worlds, it may be easier to distribute lots of small bits of content than build one large destination.

For example, Coca Cola and Crayon's campaign challenged users to create their own Coke machines while L'Oreal worked with K Zero to distribute 34,000 branded items throughout Second Life. It's easier to put content in users' own environments than bring them to the brand's, which is what AllPosters is doing through a "content distribution partnership" with Cazmo. (Of course, Coke has done pretty well with its  branded environments on its own and in There.com, so it's not a firm rule.) The only difference is that while the first two campaigns distributed virtual goods with the aim of building brand engagement to drive sales, AllPosters.com lets users click a poster on their virtual wall to buy one for their real wall.

I think there's room for both approaches just as there's room for Amazon.com and then the hundreds of thousands of widgets, affiliate links, and tie-ins I see everywhere else on the Web. One encourages purchases as an afterthought and one enables purposeful purchases.

However, the example that often comes up for virtual world shopping is whether we need a 3D Amazon.com. I've heard it both ways, and the answer that feels right is yes and no.There are things that 2D is fine for and there are purposes where 3D might work better. But the secret sauce, I'm guessing, won't have anything to do with 3D initially.

There are more destination shopping virtual worlds on the way. Kinset, which I looked at a year ago when it required a download, is prepping to launch a Flash version of its 3D mall, which should significantly help interested users get in quickly and start shopping. Guardian columnist Victor Keegan recently took a look at virtual worlds and wrote that "Other life-mimicking worlds about to be released include shopping malls such as themall.tv, which aims to emulate an entire shopping mall with scores of high street shops. It claims to have signed up 500 brands." [Themall.tv hasn't responded to requests for confirmation or comment, which makes me skeptical. Then again, I'm not Victor Keegan. TheMall.TV called this morning and confirmed that they have over 500 major brands, like Adidas, signed up and planned to bring that to 1000 before this holiday season. I'll be following up with them tomorrow.]

Like I said, I love the idea of social shopping. And I think that as virtual worlds go mainstream, 3D shopping could become a major use case. For now, though, 3D destination stores feel early for me. The attraction for most adult users probably won't be avatars (at least yet), but chatting with their friends or families--it's enabling communication, not representation.

Parallel worlds like RocketOn and Weblin let users congregate with avatars and chat on any Web page, including Amazon.com. If they're not integrated with the site, though, users don't necessarily see the same page or product, which poses problems, but I could see them as early drivers for social shopping online.

For now, though, I think most virtual world shopping will go the route of AllPosters.com. That'll change as users adopt new behaviors and technology and more providers keep releasing new offerings for shopping. And they will, because it's definitely an appealing brass ring to chase.

"It works pretty well, but it's been 12 years since Amazon opened. All online retail is only four percent of total retail,"  Kinset CEO John Butler told me last year, citing number's from Deloitte's look at retail in 2006. "Amazon last year was the 80th largest retailer at 8 billion dollars of revenue. The top ten stores had 720 billion dollars of revenue. The fat lady hasn't sung yet. It can't be over at four percent"

What do you think?

As I said, the subject of 3D Amazon keeps coming up (I've heard it at just about every conference I've been to since starting here).

How far out are we from 3D shopping? Gartner puts public virtual worlds at 2-5 years from mainstream adoption, but some of its analysts are already looking ahead to when Generation V is using all sorts of technologies, including virtual worlds, for everyday functions like commerce.

Are public virtual worlds the future for shopping? Are avatars? Are the kids? Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear about it.

Comments

[Pierre-Olivier Carles]

e-Commerce in Virtual Worlds is a killing business use. Thanks to the avatar, you can offer a real high value services that can't be found on the web 2D.

At Stonfield InWorld, we'll launch in France, next week RIL Shopping (RIL for Retail & Innovation Live). This offer is a virtual mall, designed for trademarks or retailers who want to sell real stuff. You'll be able to ask for help to a sales person (from the retailer, that means who know the product !), buy the goods that really matches you needs, pay buy Credit Card (or in Linden $)...

We are preparing the first sales sessions, with various goods such as Wine, Shirts, Cars (Yes, real SAAB cars ! ;-)), goodies, Geek stuff, sports apparels... and many others to come !

Our goal is not to replace e-Commerce on the web 2D with e-Commerce on the Web 3D, but to offer a complementary solution to traditional e-Commerce, with high value services provided by sales persons in the Metaverse.

As you kindly invited me to speak at Virtual Worlds London (Thanks again !), I hope I'll have the opportunity to tell you more about this project when we'll meet there :-)

More information here (but in French, sorry :-( ) : http://www.ril-shopping.com/blog