AMSTERDAM – Payment processor Verotel will begin providing cardboard virtual reality headsets to customers of merchants who offer virtual reality content.

The Verotel Cardboard headsets can be used in conjunction with a smartphone to view recorded or live VR content. The headsets are neutrally branded and will be shipped in discreet packaging, allowing a larger audience access to adult VR content and potentially creating a larger revenue stream for merchants.

Since the gadgets’ introduction in 2014, “VR cardboard headsets have found few practical uses because of the classic chicken-or-the-egg problem,” said Jason Collins, a senior business development manager at Verotel. “The availability of VR headsets has reduced the prospective growth of VR content production. Now that high-resolution smartphones are more widely available, more and more people are able to consume VR content with the help of a simple cardboard box. Increasing the availability of these headsets will boost the VR content-production industry.”

Verotel believes the widespread distribution of VR headsets will have a positive effect on the adult entertainment industry as a whole.

“Virtual reality content is really happening right now,” Collins said. “It is more immersive and offers a better experience than traditional video, and merchants are able to charge more and attract a wider audience. Until now, however, the process of getting those VR headsets to consumers was often discouraging. In order to deliver the cardboard boxes to the consumer’s door, online merchants needed to develop a specific ordering and shipping process or send their visitors to an external website. This dramatically affects conversion and profitability.

“With Verotel’s seamless integration within the order page, all of its merchants are able to deliver the VR headsets in a non-intrusive way, improving the further demand for VR content,” he added.

Verotel’s VR headset distribution service will be available May 17 as part of the company’s VR Pioneer Program.