#Asteria
Making virtual luxury as real as life itself
In collaboration with
Israel
PM | PO | Back-End | Fullstack
Virtual Reality-based Marketplace
2019
Delivered Product
Background
About Asteria
Asteria was founded in 2017 by Shahista Gafoor and Zeenat Ebrahim. Sharing a passion for luxury & glamour, they created a unique jewelry concept with themed collections built around daily life, special occasions, and once in lifetime moments to wear exceptional high fashion pieces.
The idea of generating unique experiences for their customers led them to devise a virtual store, using virtual reality so that each user around the world could live the purchase as if they were really in a luxury store.
The Problem
The whole project was an enormous challenge. Not just because we were asked to build an online market from scratch, but because we were asked to recreate every jewelry piece as realistic as in real life. The catalog has a lot of pieces and each one needs to be perfect.
The Challenge
Asteria wanted to be groundbreaking in jewelry businesses and they intended to sell their products available to people all over the world.
But since jewelry is expensive and it’s often used as a gift on memorable occasions, Asteria wanted to show their clients how the object they wanted to buy actually looks like in real life.
Our Goals
Build an online e-commerce based on Virtual Reality technology that helps clients to experience buying a jewelry piece as if they were in the physical store.
Tech Stack
Understanding Our Users
User Persona
Asteria was focused on women. The user persona they wanted to reach was women that were fond of glam, luxury, and spark.They also designed their collections thinking about every piece as unique. The main message of the brand was to empower clients with beautiful jewelry pieces.As they combine the idea of being groundbreaking and luxurious, a virtual reality experience was the way to go. But with that decision, they didn't want to exclude anyone who might not know how to buy.
The online market needed to be intuitive and friendly but also inspired in physical stores so the whole experience needed to feel pretty real. Southern Code worked with Glampire CO for the challenge.
Final Proposal
Results, Next Steps and Learnings
After eight months of working, the result was what the client expected. A virtual reality experience all over Asteria's physical store.With the VR Helmets on, every client was able to go around the store and try on every piece of jewelry. From testing to buying, Astteria's virtual reality experience was full of glam and glow. Southern Code’s first experience with virtual reality was a success and left us with much knowledge of the process and new tech stack.