The Problem:
Shopping online is less rich than shopping in a store. Online you see flat lists/pics of items, in store you feel the commerce around you.
The Business
Software that enables amazon.com to turn into the most exciting of Manhattan department stores, if the online shopper wants it to. Instead of flat lists of items, you have shelves, and products you didn’t know you were looking for, and three dimensions, and space above your head.
Maybe you can see other people shopping. You can see scarcity instead of “4 items left.” You can talk to someone when you check out.
Online stores will like it because it has real power to increase sales. The online store can do “if you liked that, you will love this” type recommendations that look and feel like in-store displays. Imagine if every in-store display was selected for you.
Think second life (except better) meets Amazon.com.
Doableness
This idea is virtual reality. The software for this is probably infinitely complex. I’m no engineer. This kind of complexity is not something I can even get my head around. You would need enormous amounts of funding.
But how much would Amazon pay for the software if it increased the average sale by 5%. My guess is that it could and would if used well.
My Thoughts
I think the future of the web looks more life real life and the future of real life looks more like the web. This idea fits squarely in the middle of that thinking.