Virtual Retail

Abstract

Retail design has always been much more than selling products; it is a way for the brands to express them self. It is what they stand for through their brand essences. Turning their manifestation into physical forms to create space this physical space that interns offers the consumer an experiences. The interior architecture, bridges the gap between brand and consumers, as it evokes the essence of the brand while envisaging in an architectural form and tells one a story.

However, since the birth of the e-consumer market, this gap that’s has differentiated the two apart has gotten widen, as 2D webpage can only offer so much. The interaction provided is minimal thus removing some of the experiential and service elements that traditionally a physical store would offer. This consequence lowers the brand engagement due to the limiting physical interaction of a webpage. Virtual Reality (VR) has become largely popular within many different sectors such as education, entertainment and military.

This thesis proposes to explore how virtual reality can be used as an extending to the e-consumer market and articulate a hybrid integration for a shopping environment. The thesis will use precedents of brand identity, brand identity “is the manifestation of a brand that can be seen, heard and immediately experienced” this is the embodied of the brand in the physical form. Brand identity will be used to design the virtual environment.