Virtual tour for a shopping center: navigation and online display
The shopping center uses a virtual tour not as a pretty picture, but as a working tool for navigation and sales. The visitor enters from the phone using the QR code at the escalator, finds the desired store, looks at the display and plans the route. Tenants receive additional traffic from online, the management company is an argument for increasing rental rates. According to our experience of working with shopping centers in the Volga region, the payback period for filming is completed in 2–4 months due to extensions of lease agreements.
Let's look at what exactly a 3D tour gives to retail, what the process looks like and how much it costs.
Why does retail need a 3D tour - 5 specific benefits
- Increase in online applications from tenants by 25–40%. One of our clients - a shopping center of the community mall format in the Moscow region - after the publication of the tour, recorded an increase in calls to the jewelry salon by 34% in the first quarter. People first “enter” the store virtually, then go shopping.
- Reducing the time to select premises for a new tenant by 3–5 times. The broker sends a link - the potential tenant walks around the available space himself, measures the distances with the built-in Matterport ruler, and looks at his neighbors in the gallery. One viewing instead of three trips.
- Navigation inside a building without an app. The QR code at the entrance opens the tour with the labels “Toilet”, “ATM”, “Children’s room”, “Parking lot exit 2”. Particularly valuable for shopping centers over 20,000 m² with a non-linear layout.
- Online showcase for a gallery of boutiques. A card is attached to each outlet: logo, opening hours, “Call” button, link to the catalog. A visitor who was looking for a conventional “Korean cosmetics store nearby” comes to this shopping center.
- Marketing asset for social networks and presentations. The tour is built into the event landing page, into a presentation for investors, or into a letter to a federal retailer. No “send the plan in PDF” - I opened the link and saw everything.
How it works: shooting, timelines, result
We shoot with Matterport Pro3 cameras - they provide a geometrically accurate 3D model with an error of up to 1%. The shooting point is every 2–2.5 meters, a little more often in galleries, less often in atriums. For a shopping center with an area of 15,000 m², this is 800–1200 points and 3–4 filming shifts.
We shoot at night or during low traffic hours - from 22:00 to 8:00. This way, visitors are not included in the frame (according to Federal Law 152-FZ, we do not have the right to publish them without consent), and the tenants’ windows are illuminated with working light.
After shooting - 5-10 working days for processing: stitching panoramas, placing marks on tenants, linking floor plans, setting up transitions between levels through escalators. The client receives three formats to choose from: the 360° Space cloud with technical support and high loading speed, deployment of the tour on the management company’s own servers, or offline assembly for information kiosks and VR presentations at real estate exhibitions.
One of our latest cases - a shopping center in Rostov-on-Don asked for an offline version for a stand at MAPIC Russia. We collected an offline exe file that ran on a laptop without the Internet.
How much does a virtual tour cost for a shopping center?
The price is calculated based on the area, number of floors and depth of marking. For reference: a small shopping center up to 3000 m² with basic navigation - from 90,000 ₽. Large shopping center 30,000–50,000 m² with individual tenant cards, integration with a third-party catalog and offline version - from 450,000 ₽.
The cost is affected by a couple of other things that people often forget to budget for. Night shooting - bonus for work outside the schedule (security, access, cleaning after us). Updating the tour when changing tenants - we recommend 2-3 additional shoots per year, each at 15,000-30,000 rubles per gallery.
It’s convenient to calculate the exact estimate for your property in the calculator - all the variables are already included there.
Frequently asked questions
Is it possible to update a tour when changing tenants without re-renting the entire shopping center?
Yes, exactly. Only the gallery or specific premises where the tenant has changed changes. Additional shooting of one section takes 2–4 hours, updating in the cloud takes a day.
Will the tour work on visitors’ smartphones without installing the app?
Yes, it opens in any mobile browser using a link or QR code. VR mode is available through headsets, but is not required - most users watch from their phones.
What to do with 152-FZ if visitors get into the frame?
We film during non-working hours so that there are no people in the frame. If we accidentally hit them, we blur the faces at the post-processing stage. We publish tenants' displays and common areas freely; they do not constitute personal data.
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