An art gallery is using virtual reality (VR) to help market and sell local works of art.
Slanted Door, a Toronto-based art gallery and café, has teamed up with VusionVR Inc. to create an online virtual experience that allows users to visit and explore the store from the comfort of their home or through a mobile device.
Slanted Door announced the launch of its interactive digital tour in an Aug. 14 press release, calling virtual reality the “new frontier in e-commerce.”
In addition to inviting users to move around a virtual version of its store and view the various pieces of art posted on its walls, Slanted Doors’ digital tour allows virtual visitors to purchase the artwork they’re viewing through its online store.
ITBusiness.ca tried the tour and it was fairly responsive on both desktop and mobile devices. It allowed the user to “approach” the various pieces and click on the artwork, listing the name of the piece, the artist’s name, price, dimensions and other related information as well as a link to purchase, connected to the gallery’s shopping cart.
It featured the main level and basement gallery of the cafe and easily moved the user between the spaces, with small pop-ups/targets to made it easy to know what was interactive. The virtual tour also works with Google’s cardboard VR headset.
VusionVR is a video production agency that uses augmented and virtual reality to create digital marketing experiences.
According to the release, Slanted Door hopes its virtual experience can help local artists expand their audience by enabling “collectors from around the world to purchase Toronto produced art.”