3D grocery shopping experience with virtual aisles

Using Inabuggy’s 3D shopping feature gives people stuck at home the feel of browsing in a real shop

Spotted: Canadian grocery delivery service Inabuggy has developed a 3D virtual shopping experience that allows customers to “walk” the aisles of an upscale grocery store, to help them spot highlighted items. 

Inabuggy is a personal shopping service that allows users to receive deliveries from a range of groceries and other shops in their area. However, as with similar services, it can be difficult for brands to stand out. In physical stores, brands often make arrangements to have their products placed in easily noticeable locations on shelves, at the ends of aisles or near the checkout. But with online shopping, this is not possible.

Inabuggy’s solution is to provide users with a 3D experience which mimics wandering the aisles of a real grocery store. Each aisle features several shortcuts that allows customers to find exact products from a list of options. The 3D visualisation does not require any equipment and is available on the app and website.

This is not the first time a store has tried to meld online shopping and virtual reality, but the COVID-19 pandemic has given new momentum to the idea. With more customers either stuck at home, or choosing to shop from home, there is a growing desire from customers to have more control over what their personal shopper is choosing. Stop & Shop has recently invested in Robomart, which is working on a product that will let customers use an autonomous robot shopper, allowing them to see and direct what the robot chooses.

Julian Gleizer, CEO and Founder of Inabuggy describes the new offering as a first-of-its-kind premium service which, “enhances both customer engagement and convenience, and lets customers get a close-up view of store items within each aisle, letting them feel like they are physically in the store.” He also points out that the service will offer customers a “glimpse into the online grocery shopping experience of the future.”

The coronavirus pandemic will eventually recede, but it is clear that the online personal shopping business is here to stay. This can be seen in the growing number of innovations we are seeing in this space. Some stand-out ideas we have covered recently include a grocery delivery platform that helps gig workers start their own delivery business and the advent of virtual showrooms.

Explore more: Retail Innovations | Food & Drink Innovations