This is what shopping looks like on Apple’s new mixed-reality headset

The anticipated Apple Vision Pro comes with immersive shopping apps from brands including Mytheresa, J.Crew, Alo and Elf.
Apple Vision Pro
Photo: Apple

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Would you shop for new sweaters or skincare with a headset strapped to your face? The Apple Vision Pro, now available to purchase, is expected to be the biggest mainstream market test for mixed-reality headsets to date, and among the 600 new apps created for the device are shopping experiences from J.Crew, Mytheresa, Elf Cosmetics, Alo and sportswear retailer Decathlon.

Mytheresa’s experience invites viewers to shop in virtual Capri beachside or Paris at night settings, complete with the sound of lapping waves and seagulls or a photorealistic 3D Eiffel Tower (they can also elect a less immersive experience, and leave the background transparent to see their own surroundings). Visitors can then select “Shop the Edit” to scroll through pieces that have been curated for the environment, directing their actions via eye and hand controls.

The “Dolce Vita” collection of pieces for Capri includes a Loewe beach tote, a Loro Piana swimsuit and a floral Valentino shirt dress. Over in Paris, choices include strappy Saint Laurent heels and sparkly Alaïa ballet flats. Shoppers can then select an item to see product details and additional images, add an item to a “Wishlist”, and ultimately purchase the physical item using Apple Pay.

Shopping the Mytheresa app on the Vision Pro invites shoppers to peruse vacation attire while sitting on a virtual beach under the sun.

Photo: Mytheresa

“When you go fully immersive, and you see the sun, and you see the sea moving and hear the seagulls — it is a one-of-a-kind experience,” says Isabel May, chief customer experience officer at Mytheresa. As the first and only luxury fashion app on the Vision Pro, Mytheresa is playing into the palm of a customer with cash to spend. The device — which sold out of 200,000 units in a presale starting 19 January — costs $3,500, meaning that high-value potential customers are getting a first pass.

Virtual reality shopping has long lingered on the horizon of what’s to come, but no one’s yet cracked it. Both the technology and the user behaviour have to be right for it to work, and while it remains to be seen if the Vision Pro becomes as much a part of our everyday life as the smartphone and the smartwatch, Apple’s investment in the space is drawing in partners eager to see where this goes.

“This is the moment we have all been waiting for,” says Obsess founder and CEO Neha Singh, who worked with brands to create their Vision Pro experiences. “The quality and interaction you are able to get is unprecedented in terms of resolution and how you can see products realistically in larger-than-life scale and be completely immersed in a brand environment. It’s definitely the closest, or the next best thing, to seeing a product in person in a store.”

J.Crew, Alo, Elf as well as Mytheresa all worked with virtual shopping tech company Obsess to build their Vision Pro stores. All have created virtual stores with Obsess previously, but these were primarily accessed through computers and smartphones. Other brands to have created virtual stores include Ralph Lauren, L’Occitane, Dior and Tatcha. These immersive, three-dimensional spaces leverage gaming aesthetics and mechanics to create e-commerce shopping that offers more engaging experiences than traditional grids and scrolling. They also enable brands to increase engagement, gather data and educate visitors through games.

Elf leaned into gaming with three environments inspired by “holy grail” products, including Camo CC Cream, Power Grip Primer and Halo Glow, which are available to buy within the app. With a theme of “your best e.l.f.”, visitors can explore play and relaxation, including a “paint by numbers” game (which culminates in 3D animals as a reward) and stretching and meditation. It also created a corresponding online version of the experience.

For brands, mixed reality could finally become another retail channel in which customers can see photorealistic versions of clothing, style them and buy with more confidence. Mytheresa is guessing new owners, at least, are likely to be drawn to the app’s novelty and take the time to explore, says May.

For now, brands are experimenting with different social and experiential features to draw users into their Vision Pro apps. The J.Crew Virtual Closet experience shows viewers a curated selection of products they can examine at high magnification. Shoppers can also visualise outfits by mixing and matching various pieces together on a personalised mannequin, which they can “walk around” to see in 3D.

J.Crew shoppers can style a 3D mannequin in selected pieces before purchasing.

Photo: J.Crew

J.Crew is also utilising a new tool called Shareplay, which invites people to share an experience with someone else while on a FaceTime call. J.Crew shoppers can chat with stylists and host group calls with others while shopping. Mytheresa also plans to expand to include this service to enable curated styling sessions with personal shoppers.

Singh considers this technology the most advanced possible approach to virtual clienteling yet. These types of features haven’t really been possible online, Singh says. For example, when someone is using Shareplay to interact with a stylist, they can interact with the interface together and see each other’s changes in real time. “That level of collaboration hasn't existed before; you feel like you are next to them,” Singh says.

Alo’s experience, created with consultancy Ave Advisory (founded by former Alo VP of marketing Angélic Vendette), builds on previous virtual experiences created for Roblox, e-commerce and Meta’s Quest headset. People can experience 20 different meditations in multiple environments: beach, mountain, canyon or jungle, which are enhanced by spatial audio (normally, meditation is only available through Alo’s subscription-based platform). Corresponding Alo collections are available to style on three-dimensional mannequins before purchasing.

A more transportative spatial computing experience — while admittedly not a physical trip (in the vein of Mytheresa’s elaborate influencer trips) — further stands to influence people. Mytheresa chose Capri and Paris specifically because of their aspiration significance. The retailer’s customers typically shop for occasions, such as a night out (hence Paris) or a beach holiday (such as Capri). “It’s so photorealistic and immersive that you get really inspired to shop,” May says. “We can create emotion.”

Spatial computing and smart eyewear, more broadly, have received considerable attention this year, with new launches not only from Apple but from Meta and Amazon. Meta’s Quest headset similarly enables mixed and virtual reality, while an ongoing collaboration with Ray-Ban has brought a new generation of glasses that can live stream content and “see” and interpret items in the wearer’s own environment. The Vision Pro also offers a new way to capture content via spatial video. People filming with an iPhone can use it to create video that can then be viewed through the Vision Pro.

There will be lots of experimentation in translating the retail experience into spatial computing, says Cathy Hackl, an Apple Vision Pro developer and co-CEO of Spatial Dynamics, a new spatial computing and artificial intelligence solutions company. She anticipates that some brands will provide an early glimpse into what future engaging shopping experiences can look like, while others will simply replicate what they have been doing on the web. She also predicts that brands might set up pop-up apps for the Vision Pro for events, such as fashion week. “The way we shop in person is not static. The brands that understand this will help prove the value of spatial retail experiences,” she says.

As brands and influencers search for more ways to scale and improve their influence, expect more experimentation in the year ahead. For now, the next hurdle will be to see if customers simply shop.

The Apple Vision Pro headset

Photo: Apple

The apps on Apple Vision Pro

Photo: Mytheresa

Alo Yoga on Apple Vision Pro

Photo: Alo

Shareplay on Apple Vision Pro

Photo: Mytheresa

Elf Cosmetics offers three themed experiences, inspired by top products.

Photo: Elf Cosmetics

J.Crew on Apple Vision Pro

Photo: J.Crew

Mytheresa on Apple Vision Pro

Photo: Mytheresa

Shopping Mytheresa on Apple Vision Pro

Photo: Mytheresa

Correction: Updated to reflect Angélic Vendette's title. She is the former VP of marketing at Alo, not the former CMO, as previously stated. 5 February, 2024.

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