Retail Showroom – LookInside.ie 3D Immersive Walkthroughs

Users Survey Report (2 of 2)

The 2^nd of our articles detailing the results of our user survey: Perhaps the most important part, what results are our users getting from their tours.

Survey Questions

5. To what extent have you observed change since using the tour?

67% say they observed up to 20% increase in website visitors.

50% say website visitors stay up to 40% longer on their sites.
100% say they saw up to 20% increase in google rankings.
50% say they have seen up to a 30% increase in sales.
50% say they have had up to a 30% increase in user feedback.

The 2 most important stats here are the 40% increase in time that visitors are spending on the websites and the 30% increase in sales.

Time spent on an embedded tour, is time on your web site and google likes this. Visitors like this as they are having an immersive experience and they are more qualified when they visit in person. This ultimately leads to an increase in sales.

We would all like these figures to be larger!! The use of 3D tours can underpin all other marketing investment via embedding existing content like video, audio, pdf brochures, e-commerce links and their multiple (easy) distribution methods.

6. Would you recommend the tour to a similar business?

A whopping 86% of our respondents said they would recommend a 3D tour to a similar business to their own.

3D Virtual tours are here to stay!! At the pace they are growing globally it appears more and more people are agreeing that they offer value.

“Digital engagement has been rapidly increasing with more than 2 billion views of digital twins served from all over the world. The number of Matterport digital twins has more than doubled since May 2020” * *https://matterport.com/news/matterport-accelerates-past-five-million-spaces-under-management.

Finally, we asked:

7. If you were to tell us the best thing about a 3D Walk-Through tour, what would it be?

See below some of the comments from users, need we say more??

“Enables people to have some research and choices made before visiting showroom making sales easier”
“Great marketing”
“The best thing about the tour is the ability to showcase a property to all without having to be there. It’s an excellent tool for us, particularly as we have so many overseas students who can’t view in person”
“Customers favorable reaction to realism”
“Quality has improved”

Users Survey Report (1 of 2)

We have been working with Matterport 3D Virtual Walkthrough tours now for over 2 years. So, in December last we decided to survey our users, you!

We wanted to know how you are using your Matterport 3D Virtual Walk-Through tours and what improvements you have seen in a variety of categories since having the tour carried out.

In this first of 2 articles, we detail and comment on the survey, what it told us and what strategies we can implement to further improve our users’ experiences of their tours.

Survey Questions

Please indicate when your 3D tour was created?

50% of the respondents had the tour less than 6 months, while 50% were between 1-2 years.

How often do you review the performance analytics of your tour?

17% review their analytics weekly while 83% look at them rarely if ever.

In an “Embedded space” (like a client web site) a visit is counted after the user clicks the play button to load the 3D tour. So, each Impression, Visit and Unique Visitors to our clients’ spaces are measured.

We feel it is a missed opportunity for clients not to be aware and monitoring what is happening on their tours. It could provide valuable insights into customer activity. We will be continuing to educate our clients about this as part of our strategy for 2022.

Which of the following digital functions have your utilised with your tour?

83% have embedded on web site

50% have shared on WhatsApp

33% have shared on Social Media Platforms

17% have used as part of their e-Mail signature

0% have linked to Google Street View

0% have used QR code

We would like to see all these figures in the high 80’s to be maximising the use of the tours.

Google Street view Integration is provided by default and not a user-initiated function. It can produce 1000’s of ‘image’ views when a viewer accesses the business via Google Maps or Google My Business search. This provides another great opportunity to promote your business and bring business to your site.

There is an increased use of and familiarity with the QR Code in recently times. With the return to in-person events and exhibitions there is an increased opportunity to utilise the QR Code due to its instant access capability. These can be used on brochures / promotions / backdrops / showcases.

Have you availed or utilised the analytics reporting?

67% indicated that they had not availed of it while 33% said they did not know it was available.

The Analytics Report functionality is an additional reporting tool available from Matterport providing more detailed analytics on tours.

Here the Average Tour Time and Heatmaps can tell you how long the people stay on your tour and where they spend most of their time respectively, allowing clients to target their promotional activity on other areas or maximise the user experience in this area. Either way it provides you with more insights on which to make your marketing and sales decisions.

We will be continuing to educate our clients about this as part of our strategy for 2022.

In our next article we detail the 2^nd half of our survey, we investigate what results our clients are seeing and whether they would recommend a tour to a similar business.

What’s involved in having a 3D Tour of my premises?

In our previous blog How much will a 3D Virtual tour cost me? we shared guide prices for creating a 3D tour. Here we will try to answer some other questions we are often asked about 3D Virtual Walkthrough Tours.

How long does it take?
What do we have to do to prepare?
Does it have to be out of hours?
Can it take external views? Is the weather a factor?

How long does it take?

As with pricing we cannot be specific about this but generally a large room, e.g., A Ballroom may take 1.5 hours. If you are filming many rooms and areas in your hotel, it could take approx. half a day of filming.

A Retail Showroom may have many more areas with lots of details and may take longer.

What do we have to do to prepare?

As with Photography etc. you want to present your space in the best possible way. The beauty of the Matterport is that it picks up everything, the downside of the Matterport is that it picks up everything!!!

It looks in corners, it will record out of date stuff on your shelves, it will notice a blown light bulb etc. so you should use the opportunity to make everything look great! It is a good time to have all those little renovations and fixes done!

Take special care of what your signage is saying e.g. up to date logos, the cleanliness of bins, remove all personal items from areas being filmed etc.

Also, the tour will be set at a point in time so if you create the tour with Xmas decorations up then that’s going to represent your premises while you use this tour.

If a hotel is planning a Wedding Showcase Event it is an ideal opportunity to have a 3D tour carried when the room is dressed and set up for an event.

Perhaps the best form of preparation you can do in advance of your tour is to decide what you want to achieve from your tour.

Do you already have video content you want to reuse or link with the tour?
What areas do you specifically want to include in your tour e.g., is there a specific area a wedding couple love to have photos taken?
Think about maximising the tour impact by preparing a quick piece to camera.
What item / products / services /offers etc. do you want to highlight with ‘Tagging’ on your tour?

Does it have to be out of hours?

Ideally there should be minimum to no personnel activity going on in the areas. Some unavoidable things can be blurred out, but these edits are not ideal….so, we can sometimes look like we’re hiding from the Matterport camera while its moving around!!

We also offer some out of busy hours services.

Light and the Matterport Pro2

One of the features of the Matterport Pro2 camera is HDR. It balances external and ambient light ensuring that filming can continue indoors even on a very bright or very dark day.

If you want to capture an external view e.g. a transition to a balcony or courtyard this is also possible in most cases, exception being very bright cloudless sunshine. The alternative is to capture some 360 degree panorama images which can be incorporated into to the final tour. This is also the best method to include other external areas of interest e.g. gardens, outdoor dining etc.

These are among the most frequently asked questions, put if you have additional questions or queries, please contact us for advice or a quotation.

What the numbers say!

In this article we start to explore the Analytics that are available behind the Matterport 3D Virtual tour.

Numbers and data can tell a positive story very quickly and they certainly do so with 3D virtual Walkthrough tours.

Matterport Inc., the leading spatial data company, has passed an incredible milestone of 5 million spaces captured in over 150 countries around the world!!

As a service partner of Matterport we have seen a massive increase in visitors exploring our clients’ spaces also.

In August of 2020 the above figure was 15.9K, so in 15 months there has been phenomenal traffic and “eyes” on our customers’ websites. Our growth and the success for our clients is mirroring the growth seen globally by Matterport.

In an “Embedded space” (like a client web site) a visit is counted AFTER the user clicks the play button to load the 3D tour. So, each of these 207,000 are unique visit to our clients’ spaces.

An example of Matterport Space Statistics is shown below. These are updated on a daily basis with adjustable timelines.

In our next article we will explore the additional Analytics that Matterport users can avail of including:

· Average tour time

· Heat maps

· Google Street View

Lookinside.ie is a service partner of Matterport and utilises their Pro 2 Camera, the gold standard for professional 3D capture.

If you want to know more about the many digital uses of 3D Virtual tours view our previous blog. https://lookinside.proimageblogs.com/digital-flexibility/

*https://matterport.com/news/matterport-accelerates-past-five-million-spaces-under-management.