For the Chinese Valentine`s Day, Macy`s offered an unforgettable shopping experience with the use of Virtual Reality (VR). Similarly innovative as the use of 3D configurators.

For privacy reasons YouTube needs your permission to be loaded. For more details, please see our Datenschutzerklärung.

The US department store chain Macy`s has long been regarded as a pioneer of digitization. They were the first to test iBeacons and now the company is using technology to make Valentine`s Day in China even more attractive. The American department store giant has established a shopping channel for Chinese customers via Alibaba that allows them to browse Macy`s and shop to their heart`s content. As the US business news site Quartz reports, Macy`s has also set up a virtual shop on Taobao. It is a peer-to-peer website similar to eBay.

VR on Valentine`s Day: an eye-catcher.

Valentine`s Day is China`s biggest shopping day. A total of 17.8 billion US dollars were spent on Alibaba alone on Valentine`s Day 2016. For comparison: Black Friday and Cyber Monday together generated only 13.5 billion US dollars in total retail sales in the USA last year. In other words: China and ist steadily growing middle class represent an enormous potential that can easily be tapped via Alibaba.

But it wasn`t just the fast money that drove Macy`s commitment to providing the Chinese with an online shopping experience in the US – as Quartz reports. Through Valentine`s Day, Macy wants to increase its visibility in the Chinese market.

Increase your conversion rate.

We help you to generate more inquiries from your website with Virtual Reality content.

More informations

Head-mounted display for just 15 cents.

Alibaba started selling 150,000 VR headsets at a unit price of 15 cents cardboard, similar to Google`s Cardboard. From 1 to 11 November 2016, customers were able to browse and shop virtually at Macy`s New York flagship store with VR glasses and the Taobao app. On Valentine`s Day itself, Chinese customers were offered the same large discounts in the VR app, which generate lively sales on shopping days such as Valentine`s Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Other international brands such as Target, Costco and Tokyo Otaku Mode are experimenting with VR shopping on Alibaba, with Valentine`s Day being just a test to see how the approach is gaining ground. The American companies believe that buying through VR offers a completely new customer experience and supports stronger customer loyalty.

What makes virtual shopping even more attractive is that Alibaba has developed a pay app that lets you pay with a simple nod of the head.