As businesses continue to adopt VR technologies, new opportunities are emerging for streamlining operations. One such opportunity is in the area of managing retail store locations with VR.

The COVID pandemic has impacted every sector of the global economy, and the retail industry is no exception. Retailers are facing challenges on multiple fronts, from declining consumer demand to labor shortages to challenges in supply chains. 

Nearly 90% of employers surveyed in summer of 2021 said they were having a hard time finding candidates to fill open job positions. 

Opportunity for Innovation

Retail is seeing the adoption of emerging technology to enhance the customer experience. Virtual Reality (VR) is becoming more popular in the retail industry as it offers shoppers an immersive experience that can help them make better purchasing decisions. With VR, retailers can create lifelike environments for customers to explore, allowing them to “try on” products before they buy them. This is especially beneficial for clothing and furniture retailers, who can use VR to showcase their products in a variety of settings. 

However, VR is not relegated to just the customer side. In fact, more and more store managers are seeing the benefits of VR tools for immersive remote collaboration to manage store locations from afar.

Avatour’s platform uses real-time 360-degree video streaming to enable high-quality remote site meetings without the need to travel. For example, a store manager can join via VR headset to feel instantly transported to a store location.

Manage Retail Store Locations with VR

Manage Retail Store Locations with VR

Immersive technology, such as Avatour’s Virtual Reality site tours, is being used more and more in the retail sector. Retail managers are using this technology to gain real-time access to their stores without physical travel. With immersive remote collaboration technology, managers and other stakeholders can get a 360-degree view of a store and the surrounding area. They can see how customers are interacting with the store and its products in real time. These virtual visits require very little preparation, and can be conducted far more frequently than in-person visits. More frequent access to stores allows managers to react more quickly to market conditions, taking advantage of opportunities and addressing  potential problems and more quickly..

With growing consumer demands and waning resources, it’s more critical than ever to monitor locations in real time and ensure consistency across store locations. However, physically traveling to those locations is costly and cuts into the productive time of managers and their employees. With VR remote collaboration, managers and owners can oversee their stores from a remote location, making it easier to make changes or respond to issues. VR also allows business owners to get a better sense of how customers interact with their store, which can help them make better decisions about what products to stock and how to layout the store.

Virtual Reality is helping businesses take their store locations to the next level. Now, managers can view each location on a map and make changes as needed. This can help businesses optimize their store locations and improve efficiency.

Benefits of VR in Retail Management

Save Money

Managing retail stores in VR can save money because it eliminates the need for employees to travel. Additionally, a remote management setup can offer a more efficient way to manage customer interactions and track inventory. This allows businesses to make better decisions about where to open new stores and how to allocate their resources.

Increase Efficiency 

The ability to manage retail store locations with VR increases efficiency as it allows for a single individual to oversee multiple locations simultaneously. With remote collaboration, workers can be in different parts of the store and still communicate with one another. This also allows for workers to be located anywhere in the world and still manage the store properly. Efficiency is crucial, especially in the face of staff shortages, supply shortages, and other global supply chain challenges. 

Ensure Consistency Across Locations

With VR, store managers can ensure quality standards are met across national or global locations. Depending on volume, a store manager could potentially visit all of their stores in one day, rather than taking weeks or months to make their rounds. This “on the ground” visibility serves to align employees and teams, whether it be for in-store protocol or training. 

Overall, VR offers exciting possibilities for businesses looking to manage their store locations more effectively. With VR, companies can experiment with different layouts, get a better understanding of customer behavior, and optimize their store locations for maximum efficiency.

Meet Avatour

Avatour is helping businesses redefine their operations by reducing distance as a barrier to collaboration. Our 360-degree remote collaboration platform allows users to join virtual tours, trainings, and inspections via web browser or VR device.

Using off-the-shelf 360-degree hardware, collaborators, employees, stakeholders and more can meet face-to-face wherever they are in the world, all while gaining a complete understanding of a given physical environment.

To learn more about what our platform can offer your business, click here to book a demo.