London’s West End Shops to Become Replicated Online in 3D

It may be too early for online retailers to declare a combined holiday sales victory over brick and morter stores. But if Amazon’s latest results are any sign, consumers are getting as comfortable shopping with a mouse and keyboard as with a shopping cart.

But while online shopping offers speed and efficiency, the ability to browse and discover through wandering hasn’t been successfully translated from real world stores to the virtual world. Some retailers have made attempts in Second Life to construct virtual stores. But those ventures failed. Zozo in Japan has constructed a virtual street of shops and even enlisted the design firm Wonderwall to design the architecture and interiors. But the experience is still largely two dimensional.

Alex Wrottesley, a budding media entrepreneur who owns the Near software company sees an opportunity to improve the online shopping experience and offer something different. He’s pushing an ambitious new scheme to duplicate online the real-life experience of a shopping expedition in central London. Near is partnering with the body representing West End traders to creating a unique internet world where shoppers will be able to wander down computer simulations of London streets, click their way into exact replicas of well-known stores, and thumb through goods stacked on virtual shelves.

Near used laser measuring devices mounted on the roofs of vans to draw up 3-D maps of the streets in the project. Employing the sort of imagery used by Hollywood special effects designers, Near created a highly realistic 3-D computer model to be known as Near London.

The projects’ designers also intend to change the weather according to live Met Office data – if it’s raining on Oxford Street there will be simulated rain online – and newspaper billboards will show up-to-date headlines. Virtual shoppers may also contact friends through social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, then head off on joint shopping expeditions using instant messaging to discuss their finds.

Any real-life shop-owners on a street included in the project can open their virtual doors to passers-by for a “rent” of £40 a month. They can then use the doors as portals to their own websites, or use Near’s designers to replicate their shop interiors in the style of the rest of the project.

Among retailers that have already expressed interest in a parallel London life are the fashion brands DKNY and Armani Exchange. Capital Radio, whose headquarters are on Leicester Square, may also join in. It is due to open for business online by October 2009.

[via times online ]