If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that our acceptance of online shopping is now complete. But our forced push into the arms of digital has also highlighted a fundamental issue: nothing beats touching, browsing and experiencing products in real life.

Product videos, photography and incredible returns policies are fine for an Amazon shop (where average shopping baskets tend to be under £100) but when it comes to luxury, premium or simply higher value items, we need more reassurance. In the past we’d go and experience the product in store, today… well…

2020 showed us not only how easily ‘experience’ can be taken away but also how relatively poor digital is at filling in the gaps.

As automotive manufacturers, Nike and IKEA have long understood, digital immersion drives purchase. The more you allow customers to change your product, add personal touches or even place it in a living room, the greater the psychological attachment. Your prospective purchase moves from an abstract idea to something you’re visualising owning. What’s called the ‘Endowment Effect’ in, well, full effect.

‘Immersive Commerce’ also provides an incredible canvas for brand differentiation at a time when so many digital experiences are becoming indistinguishable. As a recent Forrester report puts it “CMO’s flocked to improving CX because of the exponential growth that convenient, customer-centric digital products and apps provided… but now that CX is mired in sameness, CMOs need to find a new growth elixir”.

The richer more tactile approach of immersive commerce switches off our online autopilot creating cognitive ‘space’ that facilitates the online brand differentiation CMO’s and businesses need. It’s why, according to Accenture, iCommerce can increase revenue by 21% and average transaction value by 13%.  And it’s why 64% of brands are starting to invest in more immersive shopper experiences.

The problem is, brands are doing so in a piecemeal way that’s not scalable or connected across the business.

This is where gaming tech such as Unreal Engine comes in. Where once ‘rich media’ such as 3D, 360-video, augmented or virtual reality were expensive and involved developing different components for different platforms, real-time product rendering technology offers instant accessibility, complete portability and opens up new cost-effective possibilities for digital marketers.

Next-generation content creation tools provide a single and very agile ‘spine’ to the creation of interactive or 3D objects that can be output to any platform: from website to mobile, augmented to virtual reality, in-store digital displays to print.  All while opening up new creative possibilities including interaction with products in 3D spaces, showing them in-situ and scaling in real-life environments – via one ecosystem.

What does this mean? It means product immersion is far more practical and cost effective for brands. It also means we’re opening up a new canvas for digital storytelling not seen since the days of Macromedia’s Flash. As Accenture’s report puts it, new immersive technologies are enabling creativity that can, “…cut through the clutter of sameness, create emotional attachment, and drive higher returns”.

From our perspective, 2021 will continue to see restrictions placed around physical shopping and browsing, making iCommerce a powerful way to deliver competitive advantage and brand differentiation at a time when sameness and ubiquity is everywhere on the web.

If you’d like to see for yourself how iCommerce can propel your brand in 2021, come and try our Unreal Engine-powered immersive commerce demo.