Making Big Purchases Online

                Since the inception of the internet, businesses and retailers have found a way to create an online marketplace. The internet is the perfect platform to buy and sell. The ability to house wide variety in both products and providers creates the ideal environment for the savvy shopper. To date, the internet has been used mainly to buy and sell small ticket items; clothing, services, furniture, etc. which has created a large pool of people who do not have the old barriers stopping them from possibly making large purchases online. The market is prime for selling cars and homes over the web, not just advertising but fully selling, and the technology is here to support big ticket shoppers in making the buying decision sight unseen.

                The largest difference between buying large and small ticket items is the ability to “showroom” the product. You cannot go down to your local house store and see what the home or apartment you are looking at in another city may be like. In the same way, it is difficult to walk onto a car dealership lot and try to experience the vehicle you are researching without any hassle. Luckily there are companies that have given this some thought. Matterport is a fast growing company that offers 3D and virtual reality showcasing of homes and apartments to other companies for utilizing when selling or renting a space. Capturing the images for the 3D tour is quick and easy, only requiring a cell phone, and allows the consumer to get a very real sense of the home. Creating a virtual reality tour is not quite as easy, requiring specific cameras and equipment to capture and view the tour, but this technology goes a long way to removing the barriers to making a big ticket purchase.

                Traditional real estate and rental advertising online contains a smattering of photos, perhaps a floor plan, and maybe a video of someone actually walking through the home. Matterport’s 3D and virtual reality technology provides all three, but keeps the experience in the hands of the consumer. The consumer has the ability to “walk through” the house at their own pace. They can stop and focus on the flaws or features they want to see, get a real sense of the floor plan, an actual floor plan with measurements, and get all of this from their own home computer or phone. This massive leap in transparency will help online consumers drastically in making their decision to purchase. 

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