New shopping experience thanks to virtual reality: Saturn is testing virtual kitchen planning

“Anyone who wants to develop the retail trade of the future must deal with the technologies and devices of the future already today,” emphasizes Martin Wild, Chief Digital Officer of Media-Saturn-Holding GmbH. “At the same time, we feel it is important to include our customers in our pilot projects at an early stage. We can thus arrange for the initial practical experiences to feed into further development as effectively as possible,” he adds. Customers will find planning of new kitchens at the store both easy and convenient. They simply put on a virtual reality headset and move freely with it inside a virtual space. Here they have the opportunity to select different kitchen models and modify them to suit their needs by changing the front color or by replacing the appliances, for example. Thanks to a VR showroom, other interested customers can follow what is happening on two large-format displays.

Virtual kitchen planning was developed in cooperation with the Munich-based technology company Innoactive that manufactures the VR showroom terminals and Kiveda, a company that specializes in kitchens. The electrical appliances are products from AEG Electrolux Hausgeräte and Bosch Hausgeräte. Other partners will follow shortly.

The headset is a developer version of the HTC Vive. The final version for use by customers will be available in a few months. With Vive, you can move freely within a defined area and transmit the movement in the real world completely into the virtual world. Hereby, and through the photorealistic illustration of kitchens, the boundaries between reality and virtual reality blur for customers.

Virtual kitchen planning is one of several virtual reality offers, with which Saturn intends to extend and intensify the shopping experience for its customers. At the same time, this makes Saturn the first point of contact where you can try out technology before it is actually launched. For instance, VR headsets can already be used with computer games at some stores. At Saturn Connect in Cologne, for example, customers can demonstrate their soccer skills by virtually kicking goals. Martin Wild explains: “We view virtual reality technology to be enriching at many different levels, not only for computer games or movies. We will therefore continue to test new and innovative applications to offer our customers an exciting shopping experience and allow them to explore the virtual world in all its facets.”