One of the major reasons why many people hesitate from buying online is the limitation of online shopping regarding the richness of the shopping experience. In a physical shopping market, one can touch the fabric, try out dresses and feel the texture and the color of different objects before buying them.
While that is impossible in online shopping, Augmented Reality (AR) provides a possible solution to the limitation, offering a way for enhancing the shopping experience and making it more trustworthy.
WHAT IS AR?
Augmented reality is an immersive experience of a real-world environment in which computer-generated information is used to augment the items in the real world. It sometimes spans many sensory modalities such as visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory.
That’s why Burrow, a DTC furniture retailer, developed an augmented reality software that allows customers to personalize true-to-scale 3D versions of Burrow couches in their own living spaces.
Augmented Reality is different from Virtual Reality in the sense that the latter is fully immersive while the former only augments reality. AR is more portable while VR requires equipment for it. AR also can be experienced by more people while VR equipment is not accessible for many.
AR may be used for a variety of things, including music, video, images, GPS overlays, and more. These have real-time interactions with the physical world and may react to changes in the environment.
ROLE OF AR IN E-COMMERCE
When augmented reality is used in e-commerce, consumers get an immersive experience that allows them to interact with products in real-time while remaining in their own environment.
AR has the potential to make the online shopping experience more effective. There are several ways AR can be incorporated into e-commerce websites.
Virtual Try-On solutions
Trying out items before the purchase is an effective way to use AR in e-commerce. In VTOs or virtual try-on solutions, customers can make more educated buying decisions. Companies can better manage consumer expectations through this method. VTOs are the only way customers can try out products in the online mode.
Ravi Sharma, Founder, and CEO at digital agency Webomaze says that customers may also preview how a tangible thing will seem in real-world settings using augmented reality which is particularly powerful in the decor industry.
Bridges the gap between online and offline
Augmented Reality can bridge the gap between physical stores and online shopping. It is especially helpful during the Covid-19 pandemic when physically accessing the stores has become a major issue.
A traditional e-commerce website can’t give customers physical experiences with products, a highly personalized approach, or product ‘delivery’ before they buy. This is where augmented reality comes in, as it may help online retailers provide their customers with a more immersive, realistic, and informed buying experience.
Preview placements
AR would also allow you to see for themselves how a dress would look on them or how a sofa would look in their living rooms. It is something that many a time, is not even possible in physical stores. You can place the sofa virtually in your room, which is not even possible when buying from physical stores.
Interactive user-manuals
Through AR software in user manuals, they can be made more effective and user-friendly. The process is simple, writes the team at image editing service PixelPhant. By using an app to scan a product like a coffee machine, users can get a virtual walk-through of their new product, learn how to set it up, and explore its features.
Reduces the return rates
With the increasing number of smartphone users and internet services, more people can access online shopping websites. AR has played a significant role in reducing returns of products by making people make informed decisions.
BENEFITS OF AR IN E-COMMERCE
The e-commerce sites benefited significantly from AR technologies. In some ways, the online shopping experience with AR is even better than physically buying things.
Reduces friction in the journey
It reduces the friction of the whole buying journey of a customer since they will be able to try the product and decide effectively what they want. That would increase customer satisfaction as well.
Customers may utilize VTO technology to discover solutions to their questions without speaking to a customer support representative. For example, customers can digitally place a sofa in their space to obtain a sense of its size.
Increases customer engagement
Through AR technologies, customers would be active in selecting and trying out products from the catalogs which would, in turn, increase their satisfaction and add value to their shopping.
Helps maintain hygiene
In the wake of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, maintaining hygiene has become one of the major issues. Virtually trying on products would prevent one from contracting any disease.
Saves time
Standing in long queues and trying on clothes physically may take up a lot of time too. In this regard, virtually trying on clothes with VTO would make the process smoother and better.
Makes digital marketing easier
As stated earlier, using AR may also reduce returns of products and enhance digital marketing efforts by providing a user-friendly journey of online shopping.
For instance, instead of posting pictures of the products on social media to lure in customers, the websites and companies can help people try on the clothes and other products through AR. Along with making the choice easier for the customers, this would increase their trust in products and services. Such a method would also induce a fun factor in online shopping.
USE OF AR: CASE STUDIES
L’Oreal
AR has substantial potential in the beauty industry. It lets customers take a glimpse at how they would look after wearing a certain product.
L’Oreal is a well-known competitor in the beauty market, but it is also a leader in the field of Beauty Technology. L’Oreal has undergone a digital transition over the previous ten years, with the stated goal of becoming the number one Beauty Tech business by giving consumers with “unrivaled experience in terms of enhanced goods and services.”
After acquiring the AR try-on technology company ModiFace in 2018, L’Oreal has been able to enhance the consumer experience by providing virtual make-up and hair color try-on as well as skin diagnosis and skin shade assessments.
L’Oreal revealed data in their 2020 annual report that showed a remarkable development for the brand. According to the findings, e-commerce accounted for 27 percent of sales on the brands’ and retailers’ websites last year, with e-commerce accounting for 34 percent of sales in April 2020.
DFS
DFS is a leading sofa retailer in the UK with 120+ stores. They implemented the world’s largest web-based AR installation in January 2020, with spectacular results.
DFS used 3D and AR-enabled visualizations to allow customers to visually see over 10,000 couches in their own homes. This would help customers see for themselves in real-time what fits their aesthetic at their homes along with the size and overall appearance. All of this would be possible for the customers just sitting in their homes which is revolutionary for the consumer experience.
DFS has witnessed substantial conversion and sales results since the AR roll-out, despite showrooms being shuttered due to Covid-19 limitations. DFS stated in December 2020 that shoppers who interact with 3D and AR generate 112 percent more conversions and 106 percent more money each visit than those who do not.
Sephora
The Sephora Virtual Artist is an excellent illustration of how augmented reality can be used in e-commerce. According to Alison DeNisco Rayome, a Senior Editor at CNET, the gadget allows users to try on thousands of colors of lipsticks, eyeshadow, fake lashes, and many other beauty goods available at Sephora. It also lets users go through beauty tutorials on their faces digitally to learn how to achieve certain looks. Color Match is a new service that uses artificial intelligence to assist clients to pick the correct color hue for their skin tone based on an uploaded photo.
ASOS
Due to the Covid-19, shooting with new outfits in the studios became impossible. In this situation, AR became a huge help to ASOS, an e-commerce retailer. ASOS was able to use augmented reality (AR) in cooperation with Zeekit to imitate real-life photography, giving clients a simulated glimpse of 500 goods on six real-life models each week.
In January 2020, ASOS and Zeekit began testing augmented reality technology with their ‘See My Fit’ augmented reality feature, which allowed e-commerce consumers to see different goods on different body shapes.
WRAPPING UP
It is evident that AR technology is revolutionary in its way of changing the whole e-commerce arena. In the time of virtual lives in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, this would provide a welcome alternative to mechanically choosing products and ordering them fearfully to see if they fit.
It is so difficult to understand how a certain product would look on you since different people have different body sizes, shapes, and skin shades. Now, you don’t have to worry. AR has provided a method to see for yourself how a dress would look on you. Soon enough, AR is going to transform e-commerce forever.
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