How Virtual Reality May Be Useful During the COVID-19 Epidemic
How Virtual Reality May Be Useful During the COVID-19 Epidemic
Unfortunately, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is becoming a worldwide phenomenon. What’s more, its impact on business is adverse - from reducing cash balances for almost every company to the entire business bankruptcy. For this very reason, it is imperative to think of new ways to survive in a current situation. Organizations of all sizes should consider the advantage of virtual reality technology to function better during such a difficult period. Sounds impressive, right? Below you can find some use cases for VR solutions used in a variety of industries to gain benefits from. Let’s take a closer look below!
E-commerce: Remote shopping with Virtual Reality
With the global Coronavirus outbreak, many people are not doing shopping offline due to isolation and quarantine. However, it doesn't mean that e-commerce companies should also stop interacting with their clients and customers. Thanks to virtual reality solutions that open up golden opportunities, companies can provide new buying experiences for potential clients without stopping outreach. Only by utilizing VR solutions can e-commerce businesses redefine the shopping experience for their customers and reinvent their shopping journeys. More importantly, when powered with VR, they can create more positive personalized virtual experiences that will return them to the normal selling and buying activity. For example, Zuo Modern, which creates contemporary furniture for modern spaces, offers its attendees to visit the virtual showroom designed using VR technology if they are not able to visit the showroom personally. Another example, US-based brand Gap built a virtual DressingRoom app that allowed users to try on clothes in a virtual way before making a buying decision. Not only does it help customers to choose the right clothing, but also it leads to reducing product returns as well as cuts down costly financial burdens for retailers.
Benefits of VR technology for e-commerce businesses
Let’s find out below how e-commerce businesses can benefit from virtual solutions (VR) during the global coronavirus outbreak:
a VR-generated store lets your customers virtually browse the store no matter where they are, and buy items they find without physical visiting.
VR experience increases brand awareness when customers are sharing information about your brand on social media.
VR provides 360-degree views of the products and allows your customers to physically hold a product. Not only does it give the user a much better understanding of what they’re going to buy, but also it allows them to know all the possible angles and make a decision.
With VR solutions, you can demonstrate complex solutions easily for people who speak a different language to you.
VR gives you a real boost by offering more personalized customer experience in a virtual environment, you will likely increase the conversion rates while reducing your refund rates.
Travel: Virtual reality helps to show the world
Unfortunately, the travel landscape faces extreme challenges due to the ever-growing global COVID-19 virus outbreak. Moreover, with the current situation of lockdowns and travel bans, VR solutions can be a way out for a variety of companies in the travel sector. However, it’s also not a secret that being on the beach using VR is not a reality, but it allows you to experience the feeling as if you have been to the beach.Thanks to VR technology, not only can travel consumers experience virtual walks or tours but also they can even dive into the ocean virtually. For example, Escape Now: The Icons provides users with travel experiences by taking them on a virtual journey and sharing the stories about visited destinations. In addition to that, you can visit a variety of another great places in a virtual way. Another example is Switzerland’s Igloo Village travel brand that uses a virtual reality experience and brings a village covered with snow and cozy igloo accommodation to reality. In addition to that, you can attend a virtual archaeological tour in Grand Canyon in Arizona to explore and learn more about the history behind the canyon’s formation by clicking on different geological features.
Benefits of VR technology in the travel industry
Below you can find some benefits of VR solutions in the travel industry:
VR provides access to destination information in a much more accurate and reliable way;
VR helps to run a successful sales promotions;
VR helps to speed up the process of decision making or booking;
VR delivers extensive, immersive virtual tours.
Entertainment: Bring museums collections to life with Virtual Reality
In the age of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, a great number of museums bringing the history to life have closed globally to prevent the spread of coronavirus. With coronavirus lockdowns and travel bans, you might be looking for new ways to entertain yourself. That’s why instead of visiting museums in real life, you have a great opportunity to go and visit virtual ones. For history museums and art, one of the most effective ways not to stop outreach is going digital by offering virtual tours powered with VR. For example, the Parisian Louvre Museum offers three virtual tours for their online visitors. They include Egyptian Antiquities, the remains of the Louvre’s Moat and the Galerie d’Apollon, known for its great collection of paintings, sculptures and its high-vaulted ceiling. Another example is New York’s Guggenheim Museum that offers its collection online as well as a virtual tour equipped with the museum’s audio guides. Not only do VR-powered digital tools allow people around the world to experience the Guggenheim’s architecture and art, but also they will hear the echoing sounds of visitors’ voices. Having that in mind, it’s imperative for museum professionals to act fast and keep their audiences engaged virtually with the help of VR solutions.
Benefits of VR technology in entertainment
Below we have outlined key benefits of VR solutions in entertainment:
VR offers the ability to participate in a variety of activities - races, airborne jumps, climbs, etc. that is riskless to people’s health;
Virtual environment allows people to engage with the exhibits, museums, galleries, etc.;
VR opens up golden opportunities for businesses and allows them to return to normal selling activities by delivering fully virtual experiences and engaging more users.
Real estate: Interact with clients using VR
With the global Coronavirus expansion and its impact on real estate business, companies of all sizes are looking for new ways to interact with their audience - buyers and sellers. That’s why many companies and agencies started to increasingly use VR-backed tools in their business. With shared VR programs and interactive interfaces, not only can the business providers interact with their clients in real-time without exposing each other over the threat of COVID-19 infection spread, but also they provide training courses for their agents and teach them how to use VR. Only by allowing people to virtually visit properties from any place in the world, even from homes can VR technology help to minimize the spread of potential coronavirus infections. In addition to that, it helps you decide which homes, apartments or offices are worth buying based on experience from virtual tours. Moreover, now the field of architectural visualization has become a reality - real estate businesses can utilize innovative VR technology to show their clients both the interior and exterior of the future properties and display the results in a virtual way.
Benefits of VR technology in real estate business?
Below we have found out how companies of any size can benefit from virtual solutions (VR) in real estate business:
VR eliminates the costs of staging a property and transforms some of the traditional marketing initiatives;
VR saves time and resources - you don’t need to schedule property showcases to travel and see;
users can virtually view properties from anywhere in the world when powered with VR;
VR provides better personalization and increases revenue.
VR allows realtors to get key insights into user behavior and preferences that helps them to improve future interactions.
Medicine: VR telehealth support and safety
From developing new life-saving techniques to training the doctors of the future, VR has a great potential in medicine. Thousands of doctors and nurses will need new skills to help COVID-19 patients. VR-powered solutions can help them to deal with an expected deluge of coronavirus patients in a virtual environment. Currently, taking up the training and reading clinical guidelines is a very tedious and time-consuming process. That’s why healthcare professionals can use VR technology to be trained effortlessly, slow down and prevent outbreaks like the Coronavirus infection. For example, training solutions powered with virtual reality especially built for pathological coronavirus scenarios is extremely useful and practical in today’s situation. Moreover, it allows medical students/clinicians/nurses to apply learned concepts and techniques in the real world immediately. Another example, the XRHealth platform that helps the hospital to treat incoming coronavirus patients quarantined at the hospital. In addition to that, it allows doctors to monitor them once they return home.
Benefits of VR technology in medicine
Below you can find some benefits of VR that help businesses leaders to decide whether they need VR or not in medicine:
VR allows relaxing patients;
VR provides real conferences with enhanced virtual experience;
VR speeds up recovery in physical therapy;
VR helps to visualize the lungs of a COVID-19 patient;
VR allows doctors to visit potential COVID-19 patients in isolation wards in a virtual environment.
Automotive: Carmakers turns to Virtual Reality solutions
As the coronavirus spreads increasingly fast globally, many auto companies have been closed globally due to the recent shutdowns. In response to the Coronavirus infection outbreak, many automotive businesses are looking for digital solutions to continue their business and drive sales. For example, some carmakers have opted for a virtual solution - VR technology, and automotive brands like NIO, XPeng, Volkswagen, BMW, Nissan, SAIC tend to promote their products and stimulate sales process by utilizing VR tools in their business.In addition to that, VR-powered solutions can be also applied in the training process that is essential for the automotive environment. Not only does it help technicians to learn how they can service or repair all-electric vehicles (EVs) without physical access in a virtual environment, but also they will be taught to perform the high-voltage systems diagnostics and maintenance. Moreover, this new and innovative VR-powered training solution allows the tech staff to better understand the components and steps needed to repair any high-voltage systems (50 volts or higher).
Benefits of VR technology in automotive
Below we have found out how companies of any size can gain the benefits of VR solutions in automotive business:
Virtual Reality increases productivity during the vehicle conception phase;
provides better opportunities to train technicians;
Virtual Reality helps car designers to significantly reduce both project cost and time by virtually visualizing the exterior of a vehicle;
Virtual Reality delivers better in-cabin experience and prevents accidents and disruptions.
Gaming: Stay fit with Virtual Reality solutions
In today’s Coronavirus outbreak, virtual reality solutions are now in play. Not only do they help to find ways to search and destroy coronavirus DNA, but they also help to combat boredom and quiet their ever-growing fears of dread. Moreover, virtual games powered with VR are more effective than books. For example, an affordable coronavirus VR game COVID Escape Room built for children to help them to learn real-world behaviors and models in a virtual environment. Not only will children learn how to wash hands and cover a sneeze to avoid coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in a fun way, but also they have been explained why social distancing is important. Additionally, there is also a diversity of virtual games that help to stay fit and healthy while you and your family are in coronavirus quarantine or isolation. Another example is BoxVR that provides a must-have workout by enabling players to move their bodies and punch along to the music in a virtual environment.
Benefits of VR technology in gaming
Below you can find some benefits that VR can provide businesses in the gaming industry:
Virtual Reality makes the games more engaging than before;
Virtual Reality offers users a chance to explore a new world;
Virtual Reality gaming is a great way to stay healthy and fit;
Virtual Reality provides a remarkable learning experience.
Education: Learn and develop with Virtual Reality
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way how millions of people around the globe are educated and trained. Schools, colleges and universities around the world are closing. As a result, many of them are looking for solutions that enable people to gain knowledge online and without physically being present in the classroom. Fortunately, virtual solutions are here to help you to be applied in the educational process. The classroom of the future powered with virtual reality technology is turning into reality increasingly fast. The VR usage in remote education allows students to get classroom experience without being there in a virtual. For example, InstaVR Inc. offers a web-based solution that can be utilized by any professor or student to provide classroom virtual experiences with minimal training at the beginning. Moreover, the professor can insert and display virtual 3D objects during the lecture for a better understanding of the information presented. Also, faculties can use VR-based solutions to create their own virtual environments required for their disciplines.
Benefits of VR technology in education
Below we have highlighted how companies of any size can benefit from VR solutions in education:
VR helps to increase knowledge area;
Virtual Reality provides more practical experience rather than just passive information;
VR helps to understand complex concepts and theories and gain new experiences from a different perspective;
Virtual Reality drives students' creativity and expands efficiency to gain knowledge.
Bottom line: Are you ready for VR?
The impact of Coronavirus is already affecting businesses in the US and around the world. As the fear of the disease turning into a pandemic widens, VR may be useful during the COVID-19 epidemic. Moreover, it clearly reshapes social behavior and influences how companies are doing business. As the coronavirus crisis evolves across the world and more people prepare for self-isolation and quarantine, VR technology provides businesses with ways to connect with their customers without the need for physical meetings or visits. Having that in mind, business leaders should opt for virtual reality solutions that help them to solve the fundamental challenges and return to the normal selling activities in today’s coronavirus pandemic period.