Ma Yun'S "Taobao Buy+" PK Liu Qiangdong'S "VR Shopping Galaxy" VR War, Who Will Win?

At the time of September, Alibaba's "Taobao buy+" plan has not yet been launched on time. Jingdong announced the first "VR/AR industry promotion alliance" in the field of e-commerce on the eve of the Mid Autumn Festival, and set up VR laboratory to release APP "VR shopping Galaxy".

At this point, whether domestic Alibaba, Jingdong, or overseas Amazon, business giants have been targeting VR shopping.

In 2016, it was called the first year of VR.

It has also been touted by the capital market. Apart from the startups and start-ups, the technology midfield experience has made more e-commerce enterprises relying on online channels see a new way to enhance user experience. Alibaba, Jingdong, Amazon and other retail giants have become pioneers in the industry.

But in the interview, many people in the industry told the China Business Daily that VR's large-scale commercial application took time, but the changes brought about by the combination of the technology and the electricity supplier were not optimistic.

VR shopping

Hot touting

As one of the hottest fields of science and technology in the 2016, the VR/AR giants entered the field of vision, and the big tycoons of electronic commerce threw their olive branches together.

Two months ago.

The appearance of "Buy+" has burst the circle of friends, though only the display of underwear and other products was carried out at that time.

According to the official plan of Ali, Taobao Buy+ user test will be launched in China this month. Alipay will also launch the VR payment function. In function, Taobao Buy+ can bring 360 degree panoramic immersive shopping experience to users, and users can learn products' price, quality and try out evaluation information according to "scan".

It is understood that "Buy + +" not only provides "replacement of size / color", "Buyer show", "store display" and other links, but also has the role of virtual shopping guide and social networking.

Jingdong has also announced the first joint VR/AR industry alliance between the more than 30 upstream and downstream enterprises such as Intel, HTC, storm mirror and so on.

At the same time, Jingdong and wind storm mirror, NVDA reached procurement cooperation, will sell 15 million VR head show, 18 million VR graphics cards in 3 years.

Compared with ALI and Jingdong, Amazon is relatively low-key.

In August, Amazon revealed its intention to enter the VR field through a recruitment message.

The original said: "in 2016, we will distribute the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR game head devices to publish the entity and online augmented reality shopping experience and land on Nintendo's not yet officially released next generation game console."

Zhao Zhenying, a researcher at the National Engineering Laboratory of e-commerce trading technology, believes that the biggest benefit of VR/AR technology to the electricity supplier is the improvement of GMV conversion rate brought by the user experience. In the face of the steady and even declining situation of GMV conversion rate in the industry, the test of VR shopping in e-commerce enterprises is essentially a way to break through the bottleneck of development.

The cost is higher than the conversion rate VR commercial needs time.

Although VR is a hot topic, but in the view of Lu Zhenwang, an e-commerce analyst, it is not suitable for all electric business enterprises.

"At present, the pattern of domestic electricity suppliers is basically laid down, the number of new customers is decreasing, while the conversion rate of GMV is decreasing. On the one hand, customers are pursuing cheap to pursue experience, and on the other hand, the scale of e-commerce users is nearly saturated."

Zhao Zhenying said, "the domestic electricity supplier is facing three difficulties, namely, the high cost of customer acquisition, the uneven quality of goods within the platform and the high cost of logistics.

VR can bring shopping scene upgrades, can feel the scene of virtual reality, make online scenes better, and the effect is just icing on the cake. "

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Insiders told reporters that VR shopping in the electricity supplier enterprises, has the advantage of improving conversion rate. For consumers, there is the advantage of upgrading shopping experience. When consumers online shopping, the understanding of goods no longer stays at the level of only viewing text and plane picture information. It can observe and understand the commodity within 360 degrees, and even try it out.

However, if we want to achieve VR shopping, the cost increase may be higher than that of GMV pformation.

Zhao Zhenying revealed that the cost of VR shopping is estimated to be 3 to 5 times the current level of display, but the conversion rate raised by this technology is difficult to offset the cost of new technology.

"As far as we know, at present, the conversion rate of GMV on Ali's two major platforms is about 1%. The conversion rate of Jingdong's VR shopping can be increased from 0.2% to 1%, that is to say, if Ali VR shopping online, the conversion rate of GMV will increase to 2% at most.

VR shopping to achieve business, in addition to technology, we need to work hard in terms of cost, which will take at least two to three years.

Zhao Zhenying said.

Although it is still a long time before VR shopping is fully commercially available, many industry insiders say that, in R & D, promotion and maintenance, the self operated mode of e-commerce enterprises may have more advantages.

"If the on-line VR plan, the self operated mode of electricity supplier has its inherent advantages, because it only needs to display the relevant products on its own shelves, and the platform based e-commerce enterprises need all the businesses in the platform to have such technical capability, and they will face more difficulties in terms of cost and coordination."

Zhao Zhenying said.

Technology is still not mature.

Although VR/AR is favored by capital, there is still a distance from commercial online.

Yang Fan, an analyst at Analysys think tank, told the China business newspaper that from now on, the official business of VR shopping will take at least two years.

As we all know, VR has three forms: mobile phone box, all-in-one and PC helmet.

According to Yang Fan, the mobile phone box is relatively inexpensive, but the function is the weakest among the three. It can provide simple entertainment functions. The one machine has the performance experience, but the price and cost are very high, and the selling price is often above 10000 yuan. The PC helmet has the best experience, the disadvantage is wired equipment, it is inconvenient to carry, the scope of activities is limited, and the price is expensive.

"If you want to use it in the field of electric business, the mobile phone box will become the most important terminal. But at present, such as HTC, storm mirror, SONY and so on, the VR product development enterprise product multi-dimensional display and other user experience, the technology is still not mature enough, performance display and experience is lacking, more than 360 degree model display.

In addition, the method of cost reduction has not been found, which makes it difficult for such terminal equipment to enter ordinary people's homes.

Yang Fan said, "at present, the gap of R & D personnel in VR/AR is bigger, which also affects the progress of VR business to a certain extent."

Apart from the R & D institutions of terminal equipment, the relevant supporting service enterprises and institutions are also lacking.

"VR shopping will increase the cost for consumers and business enterprises. Consumers need to pay the cost of purchasing terminal. Enterprises need to pay for R & D, promotion, maintenance and other costs, and need mature VR technology, equipment service companies and industry environment, but VR technology is not mature. In addition to HTC, storm mirror, SONY and other giant companies, most of the other enterprises are start-up companies, with uncertain prospects, R & D capabilities and service capabilities are all questioned."

Yang Fan said.