Shopping Crate & Barrel’s New Virtual Store Feels Like Playing A Video Game
Source: Fast Company, Elizabeth Segran
Photo: Courtesy of Crate & Barrel
Crate & Barrel created an immersive digital version of its new flagship NYC store. It could be the future of online shopping.
Crate & Barrel has opened a brand new flagship store in New York’s Flatiron neighborhood just in time for the holidays. Given that I live in Boston, I didn’t think I would have a chance to do my Christmas shopping there. But today, Crate & Barrel is launching an immersive photo-realistic virtual version of the store, so I can shop the store from the comfort of my own sofa.
We start on the street, where we see the ornate steel-framed facade and a tree whose leaves are turning shades of gold. Stepping inside, there’s a large table with candles to explore. In a corner, there are throw pillows, and there’s a large solid wood dining table and chairs. If you see something you like, you click on it, and choose to add it to your cart, just like you would in a regular e-commerce store. “It’s a digital twin of the actual location,” says Sebastian Brauer, Crate & Barrel’s SVP of products, visual, and Web 3.0, who spearheaded this virtual reality experience. “Except there are little bits of magic thrown in.”
I see what he means. When you go to the shelves full of vases, you can play around with the flowers, creating your own arrangement. When you click on a plate on the wall, it flies off the shelf onto the table, creating a perfect setting for a holiday party. The experience feels a lot like an open world video game, where the goal is to explore the landscape. But this may actually be the future of online shopping.
To create this experience, Crate & Barrel partnered with Obsess, a six-year-old technology company founded by Neha Singh, a former software engineer at Google as well as Vogue’s head of product. Obsess has worked with many other brands, including Coach, Salvatore Ferragamo, Dyson, Fendi, and Ralph Lauren, to create virtual experiences customers can explore on the e-commerce site. American Girl, for instance, partnered with Obsess to create a “Virtual Museum” where customers can discover the newest dolls, along with their accessories, the way they might if they were visiting a physical store.
But this is the first time that Obsess has painstakingly replicated the interior of a physical store, from the texture of the walls to the exact proportions of the window. “We spend a lot of time working on the interiors of our stores,” says Brauer. “So it was important to us that the virtual store be as close as possible to the real thing.”
In August, Crate & Barrel announced it was investing heavily in technology across all aspects of the business. As head of Web 3.0, Brauer was tasked with thinking through how the brand can prepare for the future of shopping. He believes that e-commerce is on the cusp of transformation. Technology is quickly evolving to make graphics and animation load more quickly across all screens. There are emerging technologies like AR and VR that he believes will eventually become part of everyday life. Then, of course, there’s the ongoing talk about the metaverse. “We want to be ahead of the curve, so that we’re ready when the transformation comes,” he says.
For instance, Crate & Barrel is now photographing all its inventory in 3D, which made it easier for Obsess to develop this virtual store. (While Obsess can work with brands to convert their 2D images into 3D, it’s easier for them to quickly upload images when they are already 3D.) Brauer is also exploring ways to create more personalized online shopping experiences for individual customers, with a unique set of products customized to their tastes.
However, he argues that the key to successful new technology is for it to have a real utility for the customer. The new virtual store, he believes, fits the bill. Part of the reason he liked Obsess’s approach is that the experience was very intuitive. He believes this will make the site accessible to older consumers, who may not be that familiar with virtual reality. “There’s a reason people like going into stores,” he says. “They like stepping into the brand’s world and discovering new products. Now anybody can visit our flagship store, without traveling to New York.”
As I’ve argued, the online shopping experience has not evolved significantly since the first websites launched three decades ago. Back then, as now, e-commerce sites have come down to searching for products, then scanning through products laid out as a grid of thumbnails. It’s a lot of work for the user. “It’s an infrastructure developed by brands like Amazon for selling books,” Singh says.
Over the years, brands have tinkered around with alternative experiences, but none have taken off. There was, for instance, a now defunct shopping app called The Yes, which created a social-media-like feed full of products customized for each user. The now-defunct brand Man Repeller had an online shop full of surprising little games. Singh argues that these platforms were likely ahead of their time. “Today, many young consumers are used to spending time in virtual worlds with complex graphics,” she says. “Even those who aren’t gamers expect richer web experiences.”
Even as e-commerce experiences have remained stagnant, brick-and-mortar shopping experiences have become more exciting and immersive. In the years before the pandemic, many brands were trying to lure customers back into stores by more interactive displays, like plant walls that made for good Instagram backdrops, and community events. After the COVID lockdowns, consumers have been more eager than ever to visit physical stores.
Singh is betting that consumers want their e-commerce experiences to mimic shopping in real life. Obsess creates virtual experiences that are based on a brand’s in-store aesthetic. Fendi’s virtual store looked like a museum with a marble staircase and mannequins that looked like statues. Meanwhile, Mattel’s store was busy and colorful, like any high-energy toy store.
Right now, these experiences live on the brand’s website, alongside the traditional online shopping experience. But in the near future, Singh believes that the virtual stores may completely replace the e-commerce site. Obsess works closely with brands to ensure that real products are on display and can be purchased easily with a few clicks. “With most e-commerce stores, you’re relying on the customer to search for something, so there isn’t as much organic discovery,” says Singh. “But in store, you’re constantly discovering new things you may never have searched for. Our experiences bring that discovery back online.”