Extended reality, which combines VR, AR MR and 360-degree video, stands to change the way consumers and busineses interact, and much more, according to experts.

You've heard of virtual reality, where a head mounted display device immerses the user in a visual world. You've heard of augmented reality, where the user wears glasses or another device that projects images in front of them but enables them to still see real objects around them.

You may have heard of mixed reality, the merging of real and virtual worlds where physical and digital objects co-exist and can interact. And you may have heard of 360-degree video — recording a view in every direction simultaneously using an omnidirectional camera or a collection of cameras.

But there's a good chance you've not heard of extended reality, which combines VR, AR MR and 360-degree video in one medium. XR makes it possible to visualize what a different colored car might look like when viewing an actual car in a dealership.

But is XR the new customer experience? The answer, according to a panel of experts during the recent Money20/20 show in Las Vegas, is a resounding yes.

XR: $110 billion market by 2025?

According to a recent Goldman Sachs presentation, public market players and venture capitalists will help establish XR, a technology which it describes as a platform that merges VR and AR. The presentation said XR will redefine the ways people will interact with technology — ways that have yet to be imagined — and could represent a $110 billion market by 2025.

Panel moderator Cleveland Brown, CEO and co-founder of Payscout, a global payment processing provider, compared the dawn of today's customer experience technologies to the founding of e-commerce in 1994 when Amazon began selling books online.

"It's not a question of 'if' but a question 'when,'" agreed panelist Stephanie Llamas, vice president of research and strategy/head of XR for SuperData, a provider of market intelligence.

Llamas pointed out that XR has both customer and enterprise applications. In the customer value chain, XR will be used for marketing, e-commerce and support. In the enterprise value chain, it will be used for design, operations, learning, development, insights and the digital workplace.

XR's unique benefits

"Anything that is designed can be virtually designed," said panelist Raffaela Camera, global head of XR market and innovation strategy at Accenture, a management consulting company. Camera said XR decreases the cost of design and offers new ways of solving challenges and selling products.

XR also enables digital workers, Camera said, pointing to glasses that allow workers to view digital information in their line of sight.

"We are going to be learning differently," she said, adding that people will be able to view data three dimensionally. "You can really look at clusters (of numbers) and move through them."

"It's going to be seamless and it's going to be integrated to something you are already doing," said Brown, who sees XR playing a role in self-service environments.

"It's a reality, it is coming," Brown said, challenging the audience to consider if they should have an XR strategy.

VR, AR and MR march on

While XR emerges, the more established immersive technologies — VR, AR and MR, continue to expand.

Brown presented a video of a VR commerce app his company created that allows shoppers to not only visit a virtual store and explore products in 3D, but also immerse themselves in stories behind the products. Such experiences, he said, build a bond with a customer and enables them to make purchases without friction.

Mobile AR, blending online and in-store shopping experiences, represents one of the fastest growing technologies in retail, according to a Business Intelligence report.

The technology, which Llamas characterized as "transformational," will nearly catch up VR in 2020, with both markets surpassing $10 billion. SuperData recntly reported mobile AR will double year-over-year in 2019. In 2021, mobile AR at $17.4 billion will surpass VR at $14.5 billion.

VR headsets will no longer dominate the immersive technology market, Llamas said. She presented a slide showing that VR dominates the global market in 2018 with $3.3 billion compared to $1.9 billion for mobile AR and $0.1 billion for augmented/mixed reality headsets. Llamas said smartphones, with the ability to host AR, will drive mobile AR.

Another driver, according to Llamas, is location-based VR — stations that allow the user to experience VR without having to purchase headsets. Location-based VR entertainment will double in revenue within the next three years, SuperData reported.

Brown agreed, adding his company has found success with location-based VR. A furniture retailer was able to convert 60 percent of location-based VR users into customers, an accomplishment he called "phenomenal."

VR gaming, meanwhile, will continue to expand at a rapid pace.

Oculus Quest, a new all-in-one VR gaming system that allows a user to play anywhere with a VR headset and controllers, will ship one million units in the next year, SuperData reported, potentially bringing VR to the mainstream market. Oculus Quest goes beyond Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR, the report stated, which focus on passive media consumption.

In its launch year, Oculus Quest will triple the sales Oculus Rift did in its first 12 months, SuperData reported. Oculus Quest and Oculus Go will more than double VR revenue to $6.9 billion, representing nearly 2.5 million units in 2019 worldwide.

