BLOG by
Power and Impact of AR on Consumers:
As per a study of more than 1,000 Americans, released by Daymon’s Interactions (a marketing company):
61 percent of participants claimed that AR has already altered what or where they shop.
Meanwhile, 68 percent responded if they could shop with AR, they would invest more time at a retailer.
40 percent of participants said they might even pay more for a product if they were to experience it through AR.
And 72 percent claimed that AR had compelled them to purchase items they had not planned on buying.
AR takes the guessing out of shopping by letting you try out products before making a purchase, hence, saving both time and money.
Mentioned below is a list of non-tech businesses that leveraged augmented reality and redefined how their product interacts with prospective buyers.
Not only have they settled the consumers’ woes but also witnessed a whopping increase in their profits and popularity.
Augmented Reality in Retail:
Retailers in apparel, footwear, beauty, furniture, and home makeover businesses are already turning to AR for an improved customer experience.
Following are some of those businesses.
IKEA PLACE
Think of IKEA’s elegantly staged furniture showrooms; how majestic the furniture items look under the right kind of light and in your head. However, many a time, the furniture that looks well-suited to the room, in your head, neither fits nor goes with the theme.
By allowing their potential customers to virtually try out the products IKEA has made home furnishing easier than ever. It lets you see, virtually, how a furniture item would look and fit in your home. The app allows you to browse 2,000 furniture items and try them out.
Using the lens of your smartphone’s camera, it lets you furnish your home with 3D photo-realistic furniture items, true to size. You can have a look at them from every angle, and walk around them too.
See how AR is already improving the way we live?
SEPHORA VIRTUAL ARTIST
After jumping on the AR bandwagon, Sephora has become a leading cosmetic industry worldwide.
Their latest 3D facial recognition feature, added to the existing Virtual Artist feature, allows you to try out a bevy of lipsticks and eye shades – through categories such as Berries and Nudes – in real-time.
Earlier, you had to upload a still selfie to try out their products.
The update was added after a survey by ModiFace revealed a 22 percent decline in the conversion rate when the virtual makeup did not line up correctly on a user’s face.
However, this feature is most likely to drive sales upward.
NIKE
Nike has updated its app ‘Nike Fit’ with a new augmented reality and artificial intelligence feature that measures your feet to help you buy shoes that actually fit.
Using your smartphone’s rear camera it scans your foot to calculate your exact size and fitting.
Nike just launched tech that will tell people what shoe size they really are from CNBC.
Once the correct shoe size has been determined it automatically filters your shoe size from the plethora of sizes while you browse its catalog. What’s more, it applies a different shoe size for various categories based on usage. Let’s take running shoes for instance; as opposed to a casual sneaker, they call for a tighter fit.
Augmented Reality in Marketing
AR helps deliver a marketing strategy in real-time. Customers and clients get to experience the product or service as it is meant to be used, allowing an interactive user experience.
ADIDAS
Last year, Adidas partnered with Snapchat to launch a new ad campaign that enabled users to virtually try on its latest sneakers. Using the smartphone’s rear camera it overlaid the shoes on top of your shoes or feet to help you decide if they looked good, pretty much like any other snap filter.
COCA-COLA & WWF: ARCTIC HOME
Coca Cola together with WWF, in 2013, staged an augmented reality stunt at London Science Museum. The idea was to create awareness and raise funds for the conservation of the Arctic – the home to the polar bears. The AR stunt continued for three months, where visitors could interact with virtual polar bears via a giant screen, thus establishing an emotional bond.
The campaign was a major hit just like a casual Coca-Cola advertisement.
PEPSI MAX
We live in a time and age where regular advertisements no longer appeal to us in the same way. Wait till you experience an AR-based advertisement. However, If you’re London-based, chances are you already have in 2014. Using AR tech, Pepsi brought an astonishing experience at a bus shelter in London where people were hoaxed through AR into believing that they were looking through the shelter’s glass wall when they were actually watching a live video on an HD screen in 3D.
The video had more than 2 million views and over 24,000 shares in 7 days, winning several awards.
Augmented Reality in E-commerce
BUILD.COM
Being one of the biggest and best home renovation platforms, build.com is an online retail business without any brick and mortar. The company wanted to help provide a feeling of its products to its customers prior to purchase as many people hesitate to purchase from online businesses owing to a number of reasons.
What if it doesn’t look as good as it does in the pictures? So it teamed up with Prolific Interactive (a mobile-focused product agency) to create the “In-Home Preview”. It shows accurate 3D models of every product that interacts with customers within their existing environment.
You can fit a faucet, open a drawer, or switch on a light fixture and learn a product’s workings and can try a bevy of other products.
SHOPIFY
It is known for being one of the best eCommerce platforms. Perceiving the need of the hour, Shopify gamed up by incorporating AR technology in its application, providing ease of use to both webshop merchants and customers. The update has enhanced the platform making it more life-like and personalized.
It allows merchants to provide 3D models of their products, which the customers can view in real-time using their smartphone camera.
AMAZON
Wondering whether the sofa you’re about to order is the right shade and measurements?
What of the home decorations you’re ordering? Will they look just as good in your living room as they do in your head? Amazon or not, ordering the wrong stuff is hazardous, especially in terms of hard-earned money.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77ZJ3jw6EkA
Well, about two years ago, this eCommerce giant incorporated a new feature as well, called ‘AR View’, in its app to help riddle your queries. This update allows you to visualize online products in your living space, using the rear camera of your smartphone, making it easier to shop online. The products are overlaid in your current environment making it appear lifelike. Moreover, it also saves plenty of your time.
Augmented technology is becoming more subtle with the passage of time, and the demand and investment in AR will likely increase. In 2017, Apple launched ARKit while Google came up with ARCore for Android devices taking the AR game to the next level. Both are mighty powerful tools for developing AR apps and have allowed many non-technical businesses to take the magic leap.
For businesses, it has become an effective tool as most retail, marketing, and eCommerce businesses are resorting to AR-based mobile apps to leverage real-time augmented reality. As for customers, they get an enhanced user experience.
Which of the above applications have you used? How did augmented reality help you shop?
Are you satisfied?
CitrusBits offers top-notch augmented reality (AR) mobile app development services, leveraging the latest technologies and tools to create immersive and engaging AR experiences. Our expert team specializes in crafting customized AR solutions that cater to the unique requirements of businesses across various industries.
Content Writer
BLOG
Let’s stay in touch
