Dyson has introduced virtual reality technology to enable customers to experience and test its technology from their own homes, using a VR headset.
In what will be a new chapter in the company’s rapidly-expanding direct-to-consumer retail approach, the new Dyson Demo VR will allow customers to trial, test and understand Dyson products in an immersive, online environment.
The technology used draws on many of the same visualisation and simulation technologies that Dyson engineers use to prototype, test and develop new products and software in the laboratory.
The enhanced customer experience brings the best of the physical, offline world together with the convenience and dynamism of the virtual world. Paired with live streamed events on Dyson’s websites and 1:1 video demonstrations hosted by Dyson experts, the new approach will enable customers to better understand which technology is right for them.
This new launch forms a part of Dyson’s growing focus on direct-to-consumer retail both on the high street and online. These virtual experiences will compliment Dyson’s 318 existing physical Dyson Demo stores worldwide, 30 of which have opened in city centres during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a further 23 planned for 2022.
Founder James Dyson said: “As engineers we are concerned with improving things, and that includes how people understand our products.
“We’ve been harnessing powerful virtual reality technologies to engineer new products in our laboratories for many years, now we are applying those same technologies to re-invent how people explore our products. Our customers increasingly want to buy directly from us, which makes sense. Since we created the technologies, we’re best placed to look after them.
“We’re also trying new ways to explain our technologies through our hair salons, testing zones in-store, online live streams and 1:1 live video.”
The Dyson Demo VR is the first virtual store of its kind and is available through the Oculus store from November 19, 2021. The VR experience will update and improve over time.
“Dyson Demo VR means that we can now bring our technologies to life for our customers in ways that were previously beyond imagination,” said Sean Newmarch, Dyson E-Commerce Director.
“Using the same technologies and tools used within our laboratories, we can better explain how Dyson machines work and why they make a difference. All of this can be done using our actual design data. We can show people a virtual product operating in a virtual room but using the actual product software – it doesn’t get much more realistic than that.”
