Coach, Dermalogica dive into immersive virtual retailing

Two vertical specialty brands are providing with lifelike, 3D virtual experiences for wholesale buyers and customers.

Upscale leather goods and accessories maker Coach is partnering with the Obsess experiential e-commerce platform to create an immersive virtual wholesale showroom that is a 3D re-creation of its Fifth Avenue flagship store.

“The digital showroom enables wholesale buyers to experience our new collections each season without having to fly in to see products in person, reducing the carbon footprint of our business and speeding the buying process,” said Giovanni Zaccariello, senior VP of global visual experience at Coach. “We also use our virtual showroom to share our visual merchandising guidelines with our global teams in rich detail.”

In addition, virtual skin care retailer Dermalogica recently collaborated with Obsess to create a fully shoppable virtual store experience for customers.

“Educating consumers is one of our core priorities as a brand and we’re thrilled to partner with Obsess to make the experience of interacting with our brand and discovering, learning about and shopping for our skin care products and services even more engaging,” said Kenna Wynne-Jones, associate director of brand marketing at Dermalogica. “We are committed to meeting our customers’ unique skin care needs however and whenever they prefer to shop, and many of them prefer to shop from home. The Obsess platform provides an immersive virtual experience that’s unmatched and gives us an entirely new way to tell our brand story.”

Obsess uses virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) technologies to create immersive digital flagship and pop-up store experiences for consumers and to digitize brands’ showrooms for wholesale buyers. These photorealistic online stores are designed to drive discovery, engagement, click-through, session duration, average order value, and conversion for leading retailers and brands.

According to Obsess, roughly three-quarters of its clients are using its technology to expand global operations without physical infrastructure.

“Immersive shopping experiences are becoming a standard part of e-commerce, and forward-thinking brands are using our technology platform to provide shoppers with a rich, interactive way to shop for their products,” said Neha Singh, founder and CEO of Obsess. “Younger shoppers who have grown up interacting with video games and watching e-sports expect to be able to interact with brands in real time as they shop online and 3D virtual shopping experiences will soon be table stakes for brands in every retail category.”

Editor’s Note: Neha Singh, founder and CEO of Obsess, was an honoree in the Chain Store Age 2020 Top Women in Retail Tech Awards.