PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
THE VIRTUAL MALL
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Take a one-off VR project like the Mastercard-Swarovski showroom , add scale , and you get the virtual mall : a large , completely digital , environment where customers can browse multiple vendors and explore different goods in the same way they would in a physical retail space . The first virtual mall debuted in Korea in 2017 . Customers in VR headsets could browse a space containing goods from Korean retailers like Lotte Department Store , Hyundai Department Store , E-Mart , LG Electronics , and Lotte Hi-Mart . While revolutionary , the experience was more of a marketing stunt for a tech event than a lasting establishment .
One of the world ’ s biggest virtual malls is operated by Chinese retailer K11 , which has stepped up its efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic . K11 lets visitors virtually visit 46 brand stores , browse goods along aisles as they would in the actual stores , and then purchase those items for delivery . The mall launched in beta this February and has already reportedly seen 200,000 visitors .
While VR shopping malls haven ’ t exactly blown brick and mortar retail ( or traditional online shopping ) out of the water in the last few years , the enforced isolation of the pandemic , along with increasingly seamless payment integrations , has the potential to tip the scales .
AUGUST 2020