The 16th Double 11, the shopping experience leaps to "three-dimensional".

"I have a pair of glasses that can take you into the world of stories. You will see the scenes in the story, hear the voices of the characters, and even be able to feel and touch them."

In 1935, science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum described a magical pair of glasses in the novel "Pygmalion's Spectacles" that could provide the wearer with immersive experiences such as vision, hearing, and touch, allowing the wearer to delve deep into the world depicted in the glasses and interact with it.

After nearly a century, "Pygmalion's Spectacles" has long since become a reality. With the upgrade of technology, the scenes in the novel have begun to appear in real life. This year, the Taobao Vision Pro version of the Double 11 venue was launched for the first time. It not only supports consumers to shop virtually and in 3D, but also allows them to grab 3D immersive red envelopes, giving consumers an unprecedented experience.

Just like in the novel, by wearing XR devices, the Taobao Vision Pro version "allows us to go beyond the boundaries of our own world and enter the realms of fantasy, magic, and the unknown". In the tunnel leading to the unlimited imagination of the future, a new era of experiential e-commerce may be coming at full speed.

01 When Virtual Reality Meets Double 11

Since the first Double 11 in 2009, in the past fifteen years, this shopping carnival has evolved into an indispensable part of many people's November. Grabbing red envelopes has also become a symbolic activity of the Double 11 shopping festival, fixed as an expectation, habit, and tradition.

This year, the Taobao Vision Pro version has launched an immersive red envelope rain for this tradition. In the past, the red envelope rain was a string of red envelope icons "falling" on the phone screen. This time in the Taobao Vision Pro version, users can see the red envelopes falling from the sky. They can not only catch them with their hands to experience the realism and excitement of being hit by the red envelopes, but also catch them with a bowl, giving them the satisfaction and fun of making a lot of money. Some netizens said: "I can't stop."

This is the first 3D red envelope rain in the history of Double 11. In addition to distributing super red envelopes generously, it also brings exclusive discounted prices for the Taobao Vision Pro version. For example, the MAC Big Bullet Lipstick is directly reduced by 120 yuan and only costs 50 yuan each, the DJI drone is directly reduced by 789 yuan, and the COLMO air conditioner is directly reduced by 1000 yuan. The attractive prices have even led to the emergence of a purchasing agent business for the Taobao Vision Pro version on Xianyu.

As the first virtual reality space venue, the interesting interactions and experiences are not limited to this. On November 8, the world's first 3D space interactive live broadcast was also staged on the Taobao Vision Pro version. The famous commentator Huang Jianxiang in Beijing and the shopping guide in Hangzhou appeared in the same live broadcast space as 3D digital human virtual images.

The anchor can even have a virtual handshake with the fans. This means that brand merchants do not need to send samples to the live broadcast room. The anchor only needs to turn on the Taobao Vision Pro version to show the 3D model of the product to consumers.

With these "appetizers" on the table, the Double 11 feast moved into the XR device has begun. Users can freely shuttle in the virtual shopping space, get close to the products, and realize the real "shopping" just like choosing and trying on in a physical mall.

The biggest difference between online shopping and offline shopping is that the former cannot form an intuitive physical perception of the products. How big are the large, medium, and small bags actually? How big is the visual difference between a 1.5-meter bed and an 1.8-meter bed? What is the difference in the texture of the leather and cotton sofa materials?... The concepts conveyed by abstract text cannot be understood at a glance.

In the Taobao Vision Pro version of the Double 11 venue, these obstacles have been removed. You can feel the material of the sofa, the texture of the clothes and shoes, observe the solid wood texture of the bed, and see the 1:1 restoration to display the actual size, size, design, etc. of the product.

In addition to replicating the real-world experience, things that are difficult to accomplish in the mall are also not a problem. You can place your favorite furniture in different positions such as the living room and bedroom at will to determine the occupied space and whether the color and style are in line with the home decoration style; you can turn the refrigerator and washing machine 360 degrees and even see the details at the bottom.

Users can comprehensively understand the products from multiple dimensions and truly feel the fit and presentation effect in the actual environment. At the same time, different products can also be compared on the same screen to improve the accuracy of shopping decisions. In addition, voice or image search is also available.

In fact, as the first Chinese e-commerce shopping application on Apple Vision Pro, when the Taobao Vision Pro version was officially released in April this year, its "out of reality, better than reality" superpower has brought many shocks to the outside world.

In the evaluation video of the well-known digital UP master Zhong Wenzhe on Bilibili, the Taobao Vision Pro version can not only zoom in to view product details, try on bags and shoes, etc., but also detect whether the hand is in front of or behind the product; there will be a highlight prompt when touching the object surface; the drone flying in mid-air can sense the plane falling and perform obstacle avoidance demonstrations. When you extend your left hand, it will automatically fly to your hand; the refrigerator and rice cooker can be opened to check the internal structure and capacity; the light effect of the Iron Man helmet is adjusted in time according to the light effect in the room; the virtual commodity mirror can reflect the curtains and sofas in the real scene...

The space shopping experience full of various black technologies presents a realistic visual feeling, which once made people have a trance-like illusion of traveling to the future, unable to distinguish between science fiction and reality. Netizens couldn't help leaving messages like "The future has arrived" and "It feels like having my own private mall", and even many people were at a loss for words and just shouted "Wow" and "NB".

In the live broadcast led by Huang Jianxiang, experiences such as making the sofa rise and fall intelligently, unzipping the backpack, and opening the refrigerator to see the storage space size were also presented. In the red envelope rain venue, he reached out to catch the 3D red envelopes falling from the sky and was even hit by a super big red envelope of 888 yuan.

With the iterative update of the application, the flaws in the evaluation at that time are continuously repaired, making the immersive experience of the Double 11 3D venue reach a new height. When online shopping extends to a new world full of unlimited possibilities, the plane is not the end, and the space is not the end either.

02 Reshaping Brand Business Value

When Taobao Vision just flapped the butterfly's wings, the sensitive brands have already sensed the wind and water ripples.

When reviewing the grand events in the technology circle and the automotive industry this year, Xiaomi's car manufacturing must be on the list. In September, Taobao and Xiaomi collaborated to launch a virtual test drive project, becoming the world's first virtual test drive product released to consumers, and also one of the XR projects with the most complex technology and the most advanced experience.

Users can not only immersive appreciate and feel the design of the Xiaomi SU7 in the panoramic large screen as if they were in an IMAX theater, but also experience the "real car" in proportion. They can place it on the desk to observe the appearance of the car body in detail, or drive the car to the workstation or living room as they wish. They can also open the front and rear trunks to see how many suitcases can be loaded. What's more stylish is that you can "sit" in the car and intuitively feel the various details of the interior, space, and car covers. Increase the speed to 265 yards and feel the freedom of the wind during the test drive.

The highlight of DJI's cooperation with the Taobao Vision Pro version has actually been presented in the evaluation of UP master Zhong Wenzhe mentioned earlier. In a word, before seeing the physical object, consumers can comprehensively understand the product functions through the flight demonstration.

This year on Qixi Festival, Taobao Vision also launched its first cooperation with the beauty brand MAC to create a brand showcase. The 40 highly rich color numbers are unfolded in front of users like a fan. Through sequential switching and trying on, it is easy to confirm the color saturation, texture, and moisture. Click the gift box to rotate and zoom.

At present, in addition to the aforementioned Xiaomi Automobile, DJI, and MAC, there are also brands such as Maison Margiela, Harman, COLMO, Vidda, and Chivas that have launched in-depth cooperations such as "Brand Showcase", "Spatial Audio-Visual", and "Smart Home" on Taobao Vision. Many other brands have also expressed a strong willingness to cooperate.

For brands, the Taobao Vision Pro version flattens the folded world where the products and consumers are located, and builds a realistic display platform in the same space. In the close-range immersive experience and interactive marketing, brand exposure is completed, and the corporate image and customer reputation are enhanced.

Take Xiaomi Automobile as an example. Since the launch of the SU7, due to the very high market demand, the test drive has increased sharply, but the test drive resources are limited, resulting in either difficult reservations or long queuing times and short test drive times. In the car purchase journey, the test drive is a deep interaction link. An unsatisfactory experience may affect consumers' favorability towards the brand. Through the "virtual test drive" service of the Taobao Vision Pro version, users are no longer limited in the test drive. Some people commented that "this test drive is even better than the test drive in the store", which is not only conducive to precipitating consumers' loyalty, but also can increase the possibility of customers' purchase.

Returning to the e-commerce industry, in the past two years, merchants have faced the dilemma of "high return rates", especially for clothing. Due to the inability to try on, users often buy clothes with inappropriate styles or sizes that don't fit. They often order multiple items of the same style at one time in the hope of picking the one they like, which not only pushes up the return rate but also increases the burden on merchants.

The "what you see is what you get" shopping experience on the Taobao Vision Pro version makes the purchase decision more efficient and accurate. Consumers no longer need to rely on imagination or traditional pictures to judge whether the product is suitable for them. Users can intuitively feel the effect of the product in the actual environment, reduce returns, and improve the transaction conversion rate. Transmitted to the brand side, it corresponds to the growth of new businesses.

The brand is just a perception. As time goes by, the perception will be consistent with the reality. The business value left by the 3D new scene created by the Taobao Vision Pro version for the brand is like the vast universe. Although the boundary is difficult to imagine, it is by no means just the tip of the iceberg now.

03 A New Form of E-commerce

Starting from the establishment of Taobao, e-commerce has been rolling forward for more than 20 years, experiencing the web version on the PC side to the App on the mobile phone side. Shelf e-commerce has created a convenient, immediate, and personalized shopping experience for countless Internet users with ultimate efficiency.

At the same time, an unavoidable fact is that, as the person in charge of Taobao Vision Pro said, shelf e-commerce has also weakened many emotional and experiential values. Even though content e-commerce has emerged in recent years, where people can watch videos while feeling the products, and there are many emotional values. In his opinion, this is still not the ultimate form. "Whether we are shopping in content e-commerce or in videos today, people still do not have a real immersive experience."

In fact, Taobao has never stopped exploring this new scene and new experience. As early as the first Taobao "Creator Festival" in 2016, Ali announced the launch of the Ali VR Laboratory (GM Lab) and demonstrated on the spot how users can shop in virtual reality. This experience was called Buy+ at that time. After 8 years, the Taobao Vision Pro has turned many emotional values and immersive experiences into reality, which is inseparable from Ali's initial investment in the XR field.

A few years ago, Taobao revealed a number: About 17 million people browse Taobao every night but don't buy anything. From this, it can be seen that for countless people, Taobao not only plays the role of a shopping tool, but also represents an emotional sustenance and companionship, and the Taobao Vision Pro version will also double this pleasure.

In April, on the occasion of the first anniversary of Alibaba's historic transformation, Ma Yun posted a post titled "To Reform, To Innovation" on the Alibaba intranet. He said: I believe that the e-commerce in three years will definitely not be the most popular e-commerce today... What is important is not to catch up with who today, but to think about how e-commerce should improve the consumer experience tomorrow.

The Taobao Vision Pro version is like a verification. When online shopping is packed into online devices and the experience is upgraded from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, with the future popularity of XR devices, a new form of future e-commerce is opening, and new opportunities and stories will gradually unfold in the spatial world.