Martello Alley’s virtual solution to pandemic shopping

Imagine being able to visit your favourite store from the comfort of your own home. Although there’s no replacement for the real thing, one business owner is hoping a virtual touch will help boost sales amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“It made me really decide at the last minute that I needed to do something right now,” David Dosset said. 

David Dossett of the Martello Alley and Martello on Brock recently launched a Virtual 3D tour of his art galleries where, instead of walking through the aisles to look at which work of art will look best in your home, you click through the store — similar to navigating your way through Google Streetview or a 3D tour of a home for sale. 

“It’s been getting a lot of attention from the public, that’s for sure,” Dossett said. 

Each piece of art is tagged and linked to bring you to another section of the website where the works are available for purchase.

Dossett said the process for photographing the entire store was a little bit tedious, but the end result makes for a completely immersive shopping experience. 

“This is the only way that people can see our store now in a more natural way,” Dosset said. “Rather than just putting up a bunch of pictures and saying ‘hey, you can buy this.”

He plans on updating the scans of his stores every month or so as pieces of art come in and out so as to keep the virtual tour fresh. 

“I’m not going to discontinue it when this is over because it does give people a real good view of what this whole gallery is about,” Dosset said. 

Follow this link to check out the virtual galleries on your own.