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VIRTUAL RESEARCH 

Shelf tests in a simulated virtual shelf shop aim to evaluate the effectiveness of product placement and packaging design. Here are some common metrics you might consider in such tests:

1. Product Visibility: Measure the visibility of products on the virtual shelf. This could include eye-tracking data to determine which products draw the most attention.
2. Click-Through Rate: If this is a digital shelf, track how often shoppers click on or interact with specific products to gauge interest.
3. Purchase Intent: Collect data on whether participants express an intent to purchase a product after viewing it on the virtual shelf.
4. Dwell Time: How long shoppers spend looking at a particular product can indicate their level of interest.
5. Conversion Rate: If the virtual shelf is part of an e-commerce platform, measure the rate at which product views translate into actual purchases.
6. Competitive Analysis: Compare metrics for your products against those of competitors to assess relative performance.
7. Package Attractiveness: Collect feedback on the design, colors, and overall visual appeal of product packaging.
8. Shopper Feedback: Conduct surveys or interviews to gather qualitative insights about the shopping experience and product preferences.
9. Position and Shelf Placement: Analyze the effect of different shelf positions or arrangements on product visibility and sales.
10. Pricing Sensitivity: Assess how price changes influence shopper behavior on the virtual shelf.
11. A/B Testing: Conduct experiments to compare different shelf layouts, product arrangements, or packaging designs to determine the most effective options.

These metrics help businesses understand how consumers interact with products in a virtual retail setting, allowing them to optimize product placement, design, and pricing strategies.

tried & proven
methodologies

As leaders in virtual research for retail, we underpin our research projects with a methodology to capturing data that stems from a focus towards behavior based cognitive responses using the global standard System 1 and System 2 approach. We enable you to get to the real factors that are influencing your shoppers.

We’re passionate about service and support, we differentiate ourselves in the VR space because we support you in a complete life cycle. From storytelling through to research, each time you do one, you help the other. Our leading VR headset testing provides powerful eye tracking , however online simulation shops are a natural first step in understanding and regularly testing the shopper mindset.

Virtual Research Methodologies of Store Lab

Online vs CLT VR Testing Chart

online virtual
research
(example)

Online Virtual Research — Pre-Shop Screener
1. Pre-Shop Screener
Short pre-survey screeners to manage quotas and gather initial demographic data. Agreed and targeted incidence rates. All test respondents will meet determined criteria through pre shop questions.
Online Virtual Research — Simulated Shop
2. Simulated Shop
A combination of video’s and controlled navigation with an interactive shop at the shelf. A Tutorial and video flow will set the scene and take the shopper to the region/destination in the virtual store. Shopper will self navigate (online) in the category and will be asked to shop their product.
Online Virtual Research — Post-Shop Survey
3. Post-Shop survey
Post shop survey will ask the key questions to reaffirm the why behind the what.

Shopper hierarchy, effectiveness of layout, signage and recall.

clt virtual
eye-track research
(example)

CLT Virtual Eye Track Research — Central Location Testing
1. Central location (CLT)
Respondents will be recruited for physical attendance at one of our testing laboratories. Central Location Testing (CLT) enables a deep dive into our simulations in a very ‘real’ way, via the latest VR headset hardware with biometric and eye tracking enabling us to capture data on proposed changes, using our virtual store environments.
CLT Virtual Eye Track Research — Simulated Shop - Eye Tracking
2. Simulated shop - Eye tracking

After the check in procedure, we run all candidates through a ‘de-sensitisation’ process to give the shoppers the feel for the virtual world they are shopping in.
Shoppers can move, shop, inspect, hear and evaluate their purchase in the most life like way possible. We track their movements, their eyes and their entire shop for evaluation.

CLT Virtual Eye Track Research — Post-Shop Survey / Restrospective Think Aloud (RTA)
3. Post-Shop survey / Restrospective think aloud (RTA)

Following the shop, facilitators can guide the respondents through a post shop survey to determine qualitative answers to their experience and choices.
Often, some of our customers also want follow up interviews and walk through a recording of the shop with the respondent, looking at what they looked at to prompt the answers to the ‘why’ they did what they did.

customized reports
to your needs
& budget

We provide research services globally using OUR and YOUR research partners and are completely agnostic.
We work directly with global research companies, and/or are happy to work with your regions preferred local agencies.
We can also recommend the right niche agency to meet the brief should you not have any preference (i.e. some jobs require neuro-scientists, or some can be done completely in-house and online with templated questions and simplified online report portal).

We have the tech, the experience and the flexibility to meet your budget and time-frame and WE LOVE A CHALLENGE!