Virtual "Stores".

[Bluearrowll]

So we may all know about things such as Amazon, and eBay, and Grocery Gateway, which are online websites that one can visit and create transactions without ever actually leaving the premises of a computer. However, none of these are actually "stores", they're just webpages.

Today was the first of 3 weeks of presentations that my Communication class is doing, (my presentation is in the final week), but today there was a very interesting presentation about Virtual Shopping, which caught my attention. Unfortuneately there really wasn't much of a question period that this guy gave, and the interactivity stopped at browsing a website based on a random store.

Here are a couple Virtual stores to try from:

http://enjoy3d.com/
http://www.themallplus.com/index.html

I imagine neither of these have really been fully fixed yet, as playing around with them, I noticed you could walk through walls and such, but it's really something interesting. Another interesting thing to point out that I found out is that enjoy3d is amazon. I do not know what themallplus is, but they're both different in their own ways, and the same in their own ways.

enjoy3d appears to be you, just you in a vast area, and you just narrow down to what kind of store you want to go into, and walk up to a product and click it to get details about it, and "add to your shopping cart."

themallplus is actually alittle more "mall like" in the sense that when you walk inside stores, there are clerks that are busy at work there, but it appears to be the same process as enjoy3d.

Having said all this, do you think this can take off? I mean, there are several pros and cons to this:

Obvious pros:

-No lineups
-Never have to leave your home (technically, this could be debated as a con)
-Huge display to choose from

Obvious cons:

-Lag
-Exclusive to the middle-upper class (you need an internet connection, a computer and some form of purchasing equipment at bare minimum to use this).

What do you guys think of it?

[fido123]

Saying these aren't stores because they're just websites, is like saying Wal-Mart isn't a store, just a building. Buying stuff online is very convenient and gives you easy access to hard to find goods, but it's hard to verify the quality of the goods you're buying and you have to pay for shipping costs. Other than those two things buying stuff online is better in every way possible IMO. Also whatever lag you're having is probably due to some kind of insanely shitty internet connection you have. Also anybody can go to a library and do their online shopping there, or use a cheap computer with a dial-up connection.

EDIT: Sorry jesus Christ I'm tired. Those links are just putting a shitty, more difficult and intensive interface on something that already works. What Crashfan said.

[Crashfan3]

It basically just turns Amazon.com into a video-game-like interface that a three-year-old could navigate.

We don't need this. On most sites, online shopping is already very convenient in its current form.

[supermousie]

It's just a way to make internet shopping more appealing to people, thus luring in more money. Amazon and whatnot could just list objects -black on white in Times New Roman- but I'm sure that wouldn't draw quite as many customers.

In short, when in doubt, add graphical interface.

[ddrxero64]

These are definitely not fixed haha, I couldn't anything in the first one.

I can't believe how much this complicates things. Do people honestly think this is better than a search bar? The thing about going to a mall in real life is you look around and see what's new, have a bite to eat, and enjoy yourself. The experience is half the reason you're there really. Lots of people go online because they're looking for something specific, they don't just browse the internet stores. Because of this, virtual stores would complicate things to an extreme level. If most people go online with their product in mind, convenience is key. Unless you can eat or talk to people at virtual stores, it's kind of a big waste. It's actually a bad investment in appealing to customers in my opinion.

[reuben_tate]

I think both are good. Online stores are good at finding specific items and for getting deals and such. Sometimes I want to go to the mall or the physical store though for the "experience." Also, I might want to physically see the product because it is easier to judge it when I can physically see the product. Also, stores have their own convenience: time. I can either wait up to six weeks to get something I bought online, or go to the store and get it now. For example, I don't want to wait six weeks for the toilet paper that i bought on eBay if I'm on my last roll. Both have pros and cons, it's up to the customer to decide which would be best for the product they wish to get.

Also, online shopping has it's own cons for me. So many online stores say: shipping to all of the U.S. Then in really tiny print: "Except Alaska and Hawaii." Damn. -__- Either that, or they charge an additional arm or leg for shipping.

[darkshark]

This really is taking something that already works very efficiently and adding complication to it. In today's society, everything needs to be done faster. Period. No one has the time to wander around a virtual store for 3 hours Christmas shopping, when they can do the same thing in a quarter of the time on eBay or Amazon.