SHAKERS & MOVERS n BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
Aurigozoom
Swathi’s startup AurigoZoom focuses on
immersive experience for shoppers at
the convenience of their home or work.
She wants to provide the flexibility of
shopping for people in their break time,
at work, without having to drive to the
store or without having to stand in lines
for billing. She says that Aurigozoom aims
to provide retail shopping experience
from any location by using Virtual Reality.
Aurigozoom provides this experience and
will make a positive impact on the quality
of life of people.
Virtual reality seems to be a bit slow out of
the gate, but all the technologies were in
that stage in the past. When smartphones
came out, people were hesitant to buy
because there was no historical data to
prove their functionality and usage. It’s
just over time people got used to smart-
phones. As soon as we knew they behaved
as was advertised, however, we were very
quick to surrender our chunky flip phones
and hop on the touchscreen train.
Using Aurigozoom, customers get a
personalized shopping experience that
brings the in-store experience to them no
matter where they are. Items can be added
to cart and customers are shown a series
of recommended products, creating a
personal and effective shopping experi-
ence. They can also view open houses and
have virtual experience of house.
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The next question in everyone’s mind is,
“How is this any different than shopping
on a mobile device or a computer?” This
a good question; the answer, with one
word, is discovery. With Aurigozoom,
customers are given the opportunity to
experience the products from every angle
they can move, rotate, and zoom in on
them however they choose. Aurigozoom
will also make a mark with virtual house
hunting, customer can have a virtual tour
of the house without the hassle of open
house visits.
While the debate will continue around
businesses’ expectations of virtual reality's
potential vs. the realities of consumer
adoption, VR has gone ahead and found a
growing number of ways to make business
and industry more efficient, more effective
and better connected to its customers.
And not always in the most obvious
ways. Take VR retail as an example. With
the holiday season at a fast-paced jog
behind us, brick-and-mortar retailers are
looking for exciting experiences to lure
shoppers in-store, and away from clicking
that death blow buy button with an online
behemoth. VR retail has a place to play
in deepening shopping engagement,
regardless of whether shoppers own
a headset or ever plan to use one. The
reality is that most of us probably won’t
use VR to buy shoes or clothing — there
wouldn’t be much point. VR wouldn’t solve
a problem that still images and videos
can’t resolve in terms of showing off the
product. Indeed, some manufacturers
probably don’t want to use VR, given
that it’s all too real. A VR representation
of the hottest new smartphone looks
a lot like a black brick. It lacks the sharp
gleaming corners and screen angle of
a stylized still photo generated by a
marketing department. For retail, nothing
is more asset intensive than the decision
to remodel or redesign a store layout.
Virtual reality has already been around
for awhile to help businesses visualize
store layouts and potential traffic issues,
but as the technology becomes more
accepted, it’s becoming a greater part of
testing consumer acceptance, A/B testing
different format options, and more. It’s far
cheaper to build out a virtual store than a
Text SHOP to 90100
to stay informed of the latest
breakthroughs of virtual shopping.
real one, and the feedback retailers get
about virtual store designs is close enough
to what they would get in a physical
environment as to make no difference.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Just because VR toward business use in
retail does not mean that the respective
technologies are exclusive in their appli-
cations. Swathi says she is certain there
will be a shoppable VR experience soon, if
we just haven’t missed it already. There is
the London bar that offers a VR experience
of the Scottish Highlands while you sip
whiskey. And there are AR overlays for
retailers too, like planogram compliance
AR tools that show what’s right, what’s
wrong, what’s missing. And Swathi is sure,
with her Aurigozoom there are many more
innovations to come on all fronts, as we’re
really just in the early days of both AR and
VR acceptance and use, both in businesses
and among consumers. But in the end, for
an office-bound executive, VR is going
to shine light into parts of the business
that an executive doesn’t get to see often
enough, like far flung retail stores, while AR
will more ably serve consumers looking to
interact with real products in a digital way.
Aurigozoom promises to provide these
challenges to be fulfilled with respective
to the immersive retail market in the VR
and AR domain.
Swathi Arulguppe
Nagendra
[email protected]
408.981.3105
F
ounder and CEO of Aurigozoom,
Swathi Arulguppe Nagendra
believes in the saying, "Go big or go
home." Growing up in India, Swathi
was always the go-getter girl. As her
mother recalls, “She was a girl and trend-
setter in the family. Her goals were clear,
she always wanted to make this world a
better place.” She started her selflessness
movement urging women to charge ahead
in their career. Swathi believes that hard
work and persistency is key. She always
says that the world belongs to those who
are willing to get our hands dirty. Swathi
is always lauded for her "superhuman"
energy and her perseverance. She has also
been the public face and the private force
behind Aurigozoom’s push to maintain its
position in Silicon Valley.