With the increasingly common placement of AI in ecommerce, it’s no surprise that the tech and retail industries have moved on to something more advanced to improve the user experience. In comes Augmented Reality.
If there is a technology in circulation that is designed to improve a user’s experience, it will almost Inevitably be adapted by the ecommerce industry to sell products.
And what is AR?
AR, in simple terms, works by laying virtual images of the top of real camera images and footage in – real time. The auto mapping technology is able to distinguish facial features and alter to fit each individual.
So we saw it first (and really take off) on social media and within the gaming industry, with Snapchat’s filters altering the appearance of selfies, and Pokemon Go interactive games.
”Not all customers have the imagination power to correlate the products available online with the real world space.
How can it be used in ecommerce?
Now retailers are able to provide customers with an ‘in store’ virtual shopping experience. Digital renderings of products can be projected in to any space a user points their camera. This is particularly beneficial the furniture and lifestyle disciplines, with sofa’s easily being visualised in to living rooms without leaving the comfort of…. Your living room! This can be a really powerful tool for people to gauge the practicality, if it will fit within the space and look right aesthetically. It gives the user an interactive and enhanced experience, as well as providing them with more information for a more informed purchase.
The same can be said for the fashion industry with ASOS launching virtual catwalks on their app earlier this month- giving customers a 360°, true to fit view of potential purchases. They are also able to view certain products on different size and shape models to give a closer indication as to how items will look on them: (Drapers Online)
