Emperia – virtual reality innovation
by Startacus Admin
Metaverse-as-a-service; virtual reality platform Emperia and its immersive digital experiences for the retail, fashion and art sectors.
Some people can’t stand shopping. They would rather be doing almost anything else, and if they must buy a new shirt, they’ll either do it online or walk into a shop, grab the first thing they see that fits, and be done with it. Other people can spend, in our approximation, six solid days browsing and browsing or trying things on while we desperately look for a chair to ease the wait. But what happens to those people when they’re unable to go to a physical shop, like, for example, during a lockdown? They’re reduced to enduring the horrors of static images and an ‘Add to basket’ button. Or perhaps there’s a particular retailer that you’d love to visit, but it’s on the other side of the country or the world.
London- and New York-based fashtech startup Emperia wants to bring the experience of in-person clothes shopping to you at home. They do this by allowing brands to build a virtual store that can be explored through a user’s browser without any additional installs or downloads, or in virtual reality in the metaverse. This could be a perfect replica of a physical shop or showroom, or it could be built from the ground up for this purpose, unrestricted by the real world’s need for indoor space. One of the startup’s partners, Ralph Lauren, has a shop in a ski chalet, for example. The experience allows perfect recreation of the retailer’s products, with 500% zoom allowing users to get a close look at the design, colours, and materials.
Of course, fashion retail isn’t the only sector in which this technology can be used. The startup is already being used to set up virtual art galleries and exhibitions, for example. The potential applications are really only limited by imagination.
In January, Emperia announced that they had raised £8.1 million in funding in a round led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Daphni’s Dastore, Sony Innovation Fund, Background Capital, Stanford Capital Partners and Concept Ventures, as well as angel investor Jay Radia. The startup already counts the likes of Bloomingdale’s, Dior, Burberry, and Lacoste among their partners, and based on this and their claim of a 73% average conversion rate and a 750% average return on investment, we expect to see many more brands using the technology.
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