Dive Brief:
- Alongside other major retailers testing out spatial computing capabilities, Best Buy introduced its Best Buy Envision app exclusively on the Apple Vision Pro, the electronics retailer announced Thursday.
- Using the app, customers can visualize products such as TVs, appliances, and furniture before making a purchase, according to the announcement. Users can also view product ratings and pricing, share details via text message and open the product page to make a purchase on the website.
- Best Buy said the app was designed as a way to elevate the shopping experience while giving its customers a new way to explore and discover technology in their own living space.
Dive Insight:
The line of brands and retailers trying out the Apple Vision Pro spatial computing technology just got longer. Similar to Best Buy, other major retailers, including Alo Yoga, Wayfair, and StockX, have introduced their own product visualization apps on the Apple Vision Pro in recent months. Best Buy’s internal team designed the app for the spatial computing device with the goal of creating a new shopping experience that would instill confidence in consumers’ purchasing decisions, the company said.
“Best Buy Envision is another way we’re utilizing innovative technology to humanize consumer electronics like no one can,” Brian Tilzer, chief digital, analytics and technology officer at Best Buy, said in a statement. “The app allows our customers to see, in a lifelike way, how technology will look and feel right in their own homes, delivering an immersive and personalized shopping experience.”
It remains to be seen whether Apple’s new spatial computing device will catch on with consumers. Publications, including The Verge and MarketWatch, have detailed Apple Vision Pro users experiencing side effects like neck pain and headaches.
Beyond 3D product visualization technology, Best Buy has also been experimenting with artificial intelligence. Earlier this month, the electronics retailer announced its collaboration with Google Cloud to create a generative AI-powered virtual assistant that would assist customers with troubleshooting product issues, schedule deliveries and manage their Geek Squad subscriptions and Best Buy memberships. The retailer aims to release the tool sometime this summer.
Best Buy’s recent technology investments follow layoffs. In its Q4 earnings report, the company said it incurred $169 million of restructuring charges due to its labor cuts. The company did not disclose how many staffers were laid off from the company to Retail Dive.
