Say It Ain't So! (Second Life The Future of Online Shopping?)

"Marketing professor says online shopping will look something like Second Life in the future"

http://www.physorg.com/news154268750.html

Apparently, random downtime, failed transactions, rampant scamming, and digital property theft are the future of online shopping.

(Actually, the main part of the article is about the advantage of 3D space and social networking to online shopping.)

Have you tried RL shopping in Tokyo recently? VR store displays are all the rage. Everything from furniture to fashion, with 3d digital displays, instead of physical items.

So you can hit the oxygen bar for a quick pick-me-up, and then shop in 3d from your cell phone's wifi connection to the shop next door.

*sigh* Now I want to take a holiday in Tokyo.

VR shopping? i havent seen that yet.
maybe a few places as a gimmick but.. let me surprise you all
Japan has always been behind web wise. Searching for anything is a nightmare.. webpages are dinky and clunky and hard to navigate..
real tokyo is a mishmash of pokey little shops, crammed to the gills with all sorts of shit.. generic department stores and some pretty cool boutique shops...

I'll confess to being ignorant about it. I saw that bit on a news report somewhere. I'm sure it distorted things quite a bit.

Sounded cool though. Go to a furniture store with your living room on an SD card, and fiddle with their stock to see how it looks.

Or a fashion boutique with "you", and flip through their entire catalog with you as the model.

Now that I think about it, the story had to have been seriously skewed. Like using New York fashion week to show how people really dress.

some sushi shops have a touchpad menu tho .. lol
you just poke the picture you want and they bring it to you. pretty old stuff tho..
then theres wax menus outside restaurants =^^=
very old stuff that

Yes it's the future of online shopping. It won't be overnight, and it won't be SL or LL, but it's certainly the future

Though it would seem the obvious wave of the future, it seems to me that the technology exists now to make it happen, and it just hasn't yet. The technology to do it was there when I joined "Worlds Ultimate 3D Chat" ten or so years ago.

That could mean lack-of-vision generally in the business world. But virtual worlds are high-profile now, I don't think that's it.

It could also mean that some smart business people disagree with academic types over whether the 3D store increases the bottom line.

And of course, my eternal question when I read about how Second Life is the next big innovation in ______________, I have to ask myself, then why isn't Linden Lab doing better at attracting investment capital? Especially when, despite economic conditions, investors are still pouring money into "virtual worlds."

10 years ago, the technology didn't exist for it; i.e. our computers weren't fast enough.

It took many years of the web before businesses started taking it seriously for online sales, and the web worked just fine for it for many of those years. Currently, the 3D technology doesn't work well enough for serious online sales - at least not in a large system like SL - but I have no doubt that serious businesses are currently watching the situation and some are no doubt playing with it on their own hosted sims. It's coming. It will take time, but it will come.

This user agrees.

This user disagrees.

I love SL shopping, I really do. But it has some very important limitations, if we talk about extending it to buying RL stuff.

Searching. When I shop in SL, I enjoy browsing, and often do buy something completely unexpected. While I do this sometimes in RL, most times I am after one particular thing, and I want to find it fast and get out. SL stores are not good for this. Online catalogs are a much better way to focus in on what you are looking for.

Sizing. Most clothes fit my SL avatar without thinking about it. Most RL clothes do NOT fit my RL body...which is why I have to go to stores and try things on.

To do this on line, you'd need an accurate representation of one's RL body, AND an accurate representation of the clothing item. I'd like to be able to "try on" an item on line and see how it would look on ME...and whether I should buy the size 10 or the size 12 in a given item.

Shoes...shoes are nearly impossible. Shoes that are all "my" size ALL feel different on the foot.

An alternative would be "custom manufacturing". Give your measurements to the on line merchant, and an automated factory somewhere makes the item JUST to your particular measurements. I would LOVE to see this!

This is a funny analysis considering it is very likely the future of SL shopping will be web based (re: XStreets integration)

Maybe we'll all just wear grey gowns or grey boiler suits by then, ideal for a 14 hour stint at the comp! Our virtual selves might have become our real interfaces with others, so we'll give up on our RLs as we pile on the pounds round our tummies!

But hopefully it won't be like that.

Marketing Professor=someone who knows very little about marketing or else he'd be marketing instead of professoring.

Preaching to the Choir here - amen sister

"Your avatar could move through the store and pick up items," Swilley said. "You could even have it put on a shirt and look at it in the mirror before ordering it. Retailers like this because they could see how well items do in their virtual stores. Do people pick it up? Do they like it? This can guide what they stock in their real stores."

This is a dead give-away that this professer hasn't actually shopped in SL, or she would know that you don't need a mirror, you just look at your avatar!

Good catch.

For items that you wear, it will never become more than just another option. The absolute only clothing items I will buy online are specific brands and styles that I already own and simply want a few more of (usually only applies to my work slacks), sometimes sweaters or loose fitting tops, and things like ski socks. Otherwise, all clothing and shoes require trying on and I will never trust that the avatar is really designed properly such that how it looks on the avatar is how it really will look on me.

Not to mention that in SL, you cannot really "pick up items".

I don't think the prof claims that example of shopping is representative of SL. I think the idea is that is the direction that a platform like SL represents when compared to a flat web page. In fact she says, "The technology is crude now, but look back at the Internet when it started." SL is a baby step along the way to larger changes in the online shopping experience that will one day look like her example.

I think this shows a pretty good understanding of the consumer climate in SL.

way too laggy to shop in VR expecialy in SL ill stick to webpages in 2D
and the search function is terrible who wants to shop where traffic controls your search

In my local supermarket they put in a self-checkout which is pretty kool. The interface is a touchscreen with an avatar that does all the motions as you toucht. Only problem for the guys is that the avatar is Ruth and you cant change it =)

Is some supermarkets got 2D online shops which lots of people find useful. I always wonder what it would be like to push a trolley in a 3D supermarket and to be able to pick things up and look at them and read the packaging and put them in my trolley. Dont know if I would want to do this all the time but would be quite fun I think sometimes.

If you think this won't happen. You are NOT thinking or stuck in the 20th century.

It's gotta be what LL is ultimately aiming for.
Other than a communications platform for removing the need to fly to meetings and the education resources it brings;
We just have to wait for mainstream users having fast enough computers and bandwidth coupled with 3D headsets becoming readily, cheaply available.
It's only a couple of years away. I'm sure the money grabbers already have a plan in place.

3 heeadsets Yeah right. Next you'll be telling me we will have telephones that we can take pictures with.....

I went to look at laptop specs on the Lenovo site just today and ended up in a VR showroom walking around looking at the displays. I was always in the equivalent of mouselook and could only walk forward or pivot so it was a little clumsy. While I was looking, a sales avatar came over and offered help (voice was on and I couldn't disable it like I do in SL). All in all though it wasn't bad for a VR shopping experience even though I was really just looking for spec sheets on the laptops.

This is a lousy idea. When I shop on the web, which is where I buy many of my clothes, I want a simple, quick, experience. I can go to my favorite on-line site, click, in order, something like Women, Dresses, or perhaps Women, Intimates, Bras, Plunge, or whatever, see pictures of what they have, almost always with close ups and sometimes rear views. A few clicks more I can have it on order.

Sure, perhaps someone can have an on-line store where you maneuver your avatar around, see the seller’s representation of the clothes (not the real thing like in a real store, but what they want you to see) try it on (guaranteed to fit, it is, after all, just software), and then buy it. You can have all of the disadvantages of having to look around a real store trying to find something without the ability to see the real product

When I buy clothes on SL (I make most of my clothes) I found it much easier to use the late Onrez or Xstreet using my regular browser.


The idea of SL like shopping is as bad as the idea of having advertising sent to your cell phone. The article states that “People might find some ads helpful, like one that lets you know that you're about block away from a coffee shop.”

Sure, my purse can start ringing when I approach a coffee shop, but most coffee shops have signs that I can see. The last thing I want is advertising on my cell phone. Considering how popular the Do-Not-Call list is, would people stand for advertising calls to their cell phone?