Virtual Shops

Things seem to have come full circle in terms of how online manifestations of offline environments are developed. I remember the days of CD-ROM presentations vividly when every client would want us to create a virtual 3d environment of their store or bar etc.

Thankfully, this dropped out of fashion and 2d interfaces designed with making the task easy to complete for the user took over, the era of usability, task orientated thinking gave us the ability to make viable businesses and tools for customers.

However, to some extent these interfaces lacked the ability to elicit an emotional or impulse purchase, or failed to cater for the browser in all of us in a shopping environment. For a long time I have wondered how the First Moment of Truth concept is related to a virtual shopping environment and it looks like a marriage of the two approaches is starting to emerge in the way online shopping is allowing users to view and choose products.

Unsurprisingly it is the bookstore online that is driving this forward and here are two examples. A totally new test on Amazon earlier this year called Window Shop and Zoomiii a US based online retailer brand that uses Amazon's open source app and their sorting and P&P logistics etc. - both create browsing environments using the book covers to allow you to choose a book by its cover.

1. Amazon Window Shop





2. Zoomii: