Usefulness of Virtual Reality (VR) during the Covid-19 pandemic

Benefits of virtual reality and Augmented reality for business Model

The world was carrying on all its normal daily activities as usual until a disaster struck the world. The novel Coronavirus originated from China and within months, spread to every corner of the world. What seemed like an invisible creature collapsed all the businesses, economic and social activities and the world could do almost nothing against it. Business operations are one of the most widely affected modalities due to this recent pandemic, with nearly every single business getting affected by it.

But at the same time, the world saw that the business operations tried to resume themselves and that too with the help of technology.

The age of technology has made the lives of the people beyond easy. With everything available with just one tap and one click, the distances have been reduced at the level on which they never used to be.

Virtual Reality or VR is also one of this technology, in which a simulated environment is created and the user instead of seeing the experience with his eyes, becomes a part of the experience.

Virtual Reality has been known as a tool that can be used extensively in gaming and entertainment purposes. But with the world evolving, the use of VR is gradually growing in businesses around the world and with the situation as tough as with this one, it’s high-time to look upon some of the benefits which Virtual Reality has to offer for your business:

Provision of Remote Shopping Experience:

To save its people from the effects of the virus, nearly every government and country has imposed strict lockdowns, and this has aborted all the shopping activities. The amount of buyers visiting the mall and the markets has been dropped nearly to zero and this did not turn out to be good for both buyers and sellers, as buyers couldn’t get what they wanted and sellers couldn’t sell what they have produced, but VR can rescue businesses in many situations like this.

One example of this can be taken as visiting of the customer to an outlet of his choice while staying at home. This can only happen if the outlet has a proper availability of VR services. In this case, the outlet can easily provide access to its customers who can visit the outlet virtually. For a furniture store, the buyer can see and experience the furniture of his choice. Similarly, a car-showroom owner can provide access to his customers only if he has a proper VR setup, the customer can not only visit the showroom but can also choose his favorite car and the car can later be shipped to him.

The VR headsets designed by Oculus & HTC can prove to be excellent devies for this job however Android, iOS and Web based VR can also be very cost effective.

The following two are the major benefits which one can get by having a VR for their business:

• If a business has access to VR, it can provide access to a large number of customers and not only the native ones, but also those who are from other countries as having VR solution can provide translation opportunities to them.
• With the need of physical visiting, the customers can visit and browse the whole store themselves.

VR For Real-Estate Providers:

Real estate businesses are also among those who have been affected badly in this pandemic situation. They can be easily augmented by VR technology as their customers can be provided with visits to the property sites from their homes. They can train their agents too from their homes and can tell them about how to interact with the potential customers.

Real Estate businesses can enjoy a variety of benefits by using VR technology. Main two of them are:

• Virtual access to property sites.
• Cutting in expenses and costs; this point benefits can also be enjoyed after the pandemic as there will be no need of arranging formalities for on-site visits.

VR For Healthcare Sector:

Virtual Reality has been long used in medical institutions worldwide. Surgeons, residents and medical students have been trained on VR simulators. The importance of these VR simulators has been increased these days, as the closure of medical institutions has also taken place during this lockdown. VR has not only proved its importance for the simulators but also for the patients and common masses, as they can learn from about their health and safety especially from the Covid-19 pandemic. Doctors and other nursing staff can educate them remotely and can give them tips on how to quarantine or isolate themselves or their family members if one of them gets affected.

The VR will provide a real-time experience of an affected patient and will be able to educate others.

VR For Entertainment:

As discussed above, VR has been long used for entertainment purposes. Amid all this tension and crisis created by the pandemic, people can take some time of relief and relief can be increased if the entertainment is in the virtual form. Many gaming platforms are providing access to their VR games and to enjoy their favorite game using VR glasses and VR HMDs.

Humans have faced many different epidemics before, but this one is peculiar in the sense that it is not confined to a region like its predecessors but has been spread to nearly every part of the world. These times are difficult to be dealt with, and nobody knows when it will be eradicated from the face of the world. Humans have, although taken different measures that have made this situation a bit-easy to handle and the use of technology is one of them.

It is high time for businesses to realize the positive effects, impacts, and influences technology can make on their businesses. VR is the new dimension of this technological era and will certainly help those businesses to flourish who will opt for this opportunity.