ZANADU is a 4 years old e-commerce startup-company in the premium travel space in China. They provide a suite of travel products to affluent Chinese travelers. Signature journeys, international luxury vacations, high-end cruises, domestic short vacations, private villas and a large selection of the world’s best boutique and luxury hotels. In 2015 ZANADU started to shoot 360° virtual reality videos. These so called VR videos make it possible to experience destinations and hotels before customers make a booking.
Value Retail, the world’s largest operator of luxury outlets, offered ZANADU a 600sqm space at the newly opened Shanghai Village in Shanghai Pudong, right next to Disney. Shishang Architecture was hired to design the space considering several aspects and stakeholders
- The space should reflect the ZANADU brand. This is a very young brand, and this space is the first offline location for the brand. Lots of consideration was put into how to portrait this online brand in an offline environment.
- The space should feature the VR technology and VR experience as a center piece and attraction for walk-in customers.
- There should be more functionality to showcase popular destinations and travel products in an interactive way using touchscreen terminals.
- VR experiences can be very individual and quiet, since the users wear a VR glass. The challenge was to make the place exciting and immersive at the same time.