by 
Though we spend ample time examining consumer-based XR endpoints, greater near-term impact is seen in the enterprise. This includes brands that use AR to promote products in greater dimension (B2B2C) and industrial enterprises that streamline their own operations (B2B).
These industrial endpoints include visual support in areas like assembly and maintenance. The idea is that AR’s line-of-sight orientation can guide front-line workers. Compared to the “mental mapping” they must do with 2D instructions, visual support makes them more effective.
And with VR, employee training and onboarding can be elevated through immersive sequences that boost experiential learning and memory recall. It also scales given that far-flung employees can get the same quality training, versus costly travel for senior training staff.
Altogether, there are micro and macro benefits to enterprise XR. The above micro-efficiencies add up to worthwhile bottom-line impact when deployed at scale. Macro benefits include lessening job strain and closing the “skills gap,” which can preserve institutional knowledge.
But how is this materializing today and who’s realizing enterprise XR benefits? Our research arm ARtillery Intelligence tackled these questions in a recent report. It joins our report excerpt series, with the latest below on VR’s role in helping Walmart train employees.
Expensive Endeavor
Walmart was in the process of rolling out its new pickup towers – self-serve lockers for in-store pickup orders. Given the scale of the rollout to 4,700 locations, it had to quickly train 2.2 million retail associates how to operate them. This has always been an expensive endeavor.
For example, traditional methods involved 8 hours of on-site instructor-led group sessions, eLearning, hands-on training, and launch kit training. Altogether, this represented a considerable cost in terms of disruptions to store operations and travel/personnel costs for trainers.
So Walmart was compelled to streamline the process. The company looked to VR training specialist Strivr to design a customized training simulation. This included a live-action sequence in VR that took place at store locations. That last part meant little travel cost and strain.
In the virtual sequence, VR learners were virtually placed on the sales floor where they could practice setting up, managing, and troubleshooting the Pickup Towers. This included stocking and loading products, as well as protocols for fragile, age-restricted, and oversized items.
To reinforce the knowledge gained in these experiences and track the program’s effectiveness at multiple steps, multiple-choice quizzes were embedded throughout. This not only reinforced the new knowledge, but offered a live-learning feedback loop for administrators to track.
Results & Takeaways
So what were the results. From this program alone, Walmart was able to streamline training time from eight hours to 15 minutes – a 96 percent reduction. VR learners also outperformed traditional methods 70 percent of the time while achieving 10-15 percent higher scores.
As for cost efficiencies realized by Walmart, it saved thousands of dollars per employee, such as centralized training staff that had to travel to store locations. Walmart also saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in avoiding operational disruptions of previous methods.
As for strategic takeaways, because training took place at store locations, it was easy, inexpensive, and a comfortable location for trainees. 360 video filming was required to produce the VR modules, but it was completed after hours to lessen disruptions to store operations.
Walmart has since expanded its VR training to customer service, distribution centers, and emergency preparedness. This signals VR’s breadth of applicability, and that deeper relationships (read: greater ARPU for VR vendors) are possible after the first high-value use case is validated.
We’ll pause there and pick things up in the next case study with more enterprise XR best practices and tactical takeaways…