Dyson wants customers to try and buy its products in virtual reality

Dyson will let customers view, handle, try and even buy its products in virtual reality from their homes.

Dyson is inviting customers to try and buy its products in virtual reality.

Dyson will let customers view, handle, try and even buy its products in virtual reality from their homes.

Customers will be able to use hand controllers to virtually pick up Dyson products, pull them apart and even operate them in its new virtual world.

The Australian last week used the new VR system to virtually operate Dyson’s Supersonic hair dryer, Corrale straightener and Airwrap styler.

Using a VR headset and hand controllers, I was able to pick up each of these machines, pick up attachments with the hand controllers, add the attachments to the machines and curl and straighten virtual. You could use different virtual heat levels to see the impact on the result.

From November, prospective customers will be able to put on an Oculus headset, download and install Dyson’s Demo VR experience and try it for themselves. At launch, customers will be able to handle the same three hair care machines.

Over time Dyson will roll out the experience to other machine categories such as vacuums and air purifiers, and add additional functionality such as the ability to pull apart its products by “exploding” them to see their internals and discover how they work.

From launch, customers using the VR experience can hit a buy button in virtual reality to purchase one of these machines by providing they have linked Dyson payments to their Facebook account.

They can also select and buy accessories for the machines, such as cases. They can view various colour options for machines and cases, and purchase those as well.

A spokesman told The Australian that in future, customers will even try out vacuuming in virtual reality. They will be able to select different types of debris and run the VR vacuum over it.

You will be able to vacuum over different floor types and add and try out various vacuum attachments as they go.

Dyson will let customers virtually pull apart its products. CLICK TO ENLARGE

The spokesman said Dyson would make a cut-down version of the experience via a 3D platform on the web, but it won’t portray an understanding of the true performance of the machine in an immersive way, as you get with the headset.

But why do this in the first place? Dyson says the VR experience solves the problem of online shopping being a traditional 2D web experience and allows them to experience in an immersive way.

“It is the ultimate try and buy experience. It is about understanding how the technologies work,” the spokesman said.

Dyson is no stranger to the world of virtual reality. It says its engineers have been using VR for years in its labs to develop its technologies. VR also was using to simulate driving experiences when it was developing its now discontinued Dyson electric vehicle.

The VR shopping experience was a natural extension of this. “It brings our technologies closer to potential owners,” the spokesman said.

He said the VR experience will update and improve over time.

The VR experience adds to the in-store experience that Dyson opened as a demo store/service centre in Sydney’s Castle Hill in October.

Dyson has used VR to assist with engineering tasks.

Dyson’s currently operates 318 physical Dyson Demo stores worldwide, 30 of which are in city centres. Nineteen more are planned for 2021 and into 2022.

Founder and chief engineer James Dyson said the company was keen to show prospective owners how its products worked.

“As engineers we are concerned with improving things and that includes how people understand our products,” Sir James said.

“We have been harnessing powerful virtual reality technologies to engineer new products in our labs for many years, now we are applying those same technologies to reinvent how people explore our products.

“Our customers increasingly want to buy directly from us, which makes sense, because we created the technology and we are best placed to look after them.

“We are also trying new ways to explain our technologies through our hair salons, testing zones in stores, online live streams, and 1:1 live video.”

Details of the VR experience can be accessed here.