Virtual insanity

By Rhiannon McGregor 28 : 11 : 2016 Retail Experience : Black Friday : Wieden+Kennedy

London – Shopageddon is a new virtual reality (VR) experience that imagines the future of online shopping.

The website, which uses Amazon’s application programming interface, enables viewers to shop for products by looking at them
The frenetic experience aims to merge ‘the worst of the digital and physical worlds’

Created by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy London, Shopageddon presents viewers with a seemingly endless barrage of consumer goods in a 360-degree virtual space. The hyperactive e-commerce experiment is designed with VR headsets in mind to enable viewers to fully immerse in the experience so that the consumer is fully immersed within the experiment.

The programme, which was launched ahead of Black Friday, tracks viewers’ eye movements during the experience, and presents them with the five items they looked at most frequently at the end. Viewers can then click through to buy the products on Amazon.

The project is part of Wieden+Kennedy London’s exploration into the application of VR in retail scenarios. ‘We have been experimenting with VR, making random things and trying to figure out what it might all mean beyond entertainment,’ Iain Tate, executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy London, told It’s Nice That.

The Big Picture

As the physical and digital worlds continue to merge, artists are using VR as an immersive tool to explore future concepts. Read our Virtual Reality Market to find out more.