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Virtual reality (VR) has largely rolled out as an entertainment technology, but the (actual) reality is that VR also boasts serious business capabilities. Whether it’s test-driving a product or boosting customer loyalty, VR is especially effective when it comes to cultivating a rich consumer experience and marketing your products and services. But the potential uses for VR don’t stop there; experts agree that in the future, VR will offer even more powerful capabilities to businesses and individuals alike.
It’s worth mentioning VR’s relation to augmented reality (AR), which uses 3D models to “augment” the real, physical world. VR, on the other hand, creates an environment that’s entirely separate from the one you’re standing in. Some experts told Business News Daily that they expect these technologies to converge over time. Indeed, that trend is already visible with the creation of products like Microsoft’s HoloLens, a headset with immense processing power that enables users to access both VR and AR programs.
From taking stock of inventory to hosting virtual conferences, VR can be applied to a slew of business needs. In general, VR allows users to immerse themselves in an environment that synthesizes a vast amount of data and presents it in a way that’s simple to understand and navigate. That data can then be stored and archived so that users can monitor trends over time.
Virtual reality is especially effective for marketing, because it creates an opportunity for businesses to establish a strong emotional connection among target consumers and their product.
“Right now, the most successful business use is marketing experience,” Maria Korolov, editor and publisher of business tech publication Hypergrid Business, said. “You take a little bit of your product, put it into a virtual environment and have people use it. It’s particularly popular with movies. You get the eye contact, you feel like you’re in a different location.”