How to Beat Your Online Competition With AR Technologies

Retail has dramatically changed since the pandemic began. The numbers of consumers visiting real-life shops dropped significantly because of the COVID-19 outbreak. To compensate for the decline in revenue, many companies made the move online. According to experts, by 2023, e-commerce will account for more than $6.5 trillion in sales, representing 22 percent of all global retail sales. Companies need to start utilizing substantial advantages to effectively compete online.

One of the best ways to stand out in e-commerce is to provide consumers with engaging online shopping experiences using augmented reality (AR). AR technologies allow consumers to put the digital copies of items in a real-life environment and try them on to ensure that they meet their expectations. These technologies include demonstration of objects in AR and virtual try-on.

Demonstration of Items in AR: Placing Ikea Furniture Into a Real-Life Environment and a Virtual Fashion Show by Victoria Andreyanova

AR is a technology that enables you to place virtual objects into a real-life environment. The technology opens many opportunities for retailers. For example, it helps shoppers examine the quality of materials and understand how clothes look and fit. Using AR technology in e-commerce attracts the attention of new customers, increases brand awareness, and boosts conversion.

One of the best examples is the IKEA Place application that allows users to "place" furniture from the retailer's catalog into their homes or offices to see how it will look in real life. The app attracted customers from all over the world. In 2018, IKEA Place became the second most popular solution among free apps for smartphones with ARKit. The IKEA brand was also included in the list of 50 most innovative companies by Fast Company.

To experience the 3D View in AR, click the cube icon.

The partnership between Victoria Andreyanova and Cappasity is another example of how a retailer can attract the attention of consumers with AR technology. Victoria Andreyanova became the first brand in Russia to showcase a new fashion collection as AR holograms. The technology makes the online shopping experience more engaging and allows consumers to see all the details of fashion designs. As a rule, digitizing a simple object in AR takes at least a week, but the fashion brand spent only 15 minutes digitizing each item since AR holograms are created from the Cappasity 3D View format.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuvpWbKiLZM

AR Try-On: Gucci Virtual Sneakers and a Virtual Fitting Room on the NIKA Website

AR technology helps customers purchase with confidence, reduces the number of returns, and promotes an online store. Well-known players in the e-commerce market have already implemented online try-on. For example, the Italian fashion house Gucci has added the opportunity to try AR sneakers on its mobile app. To try them on, you need to choose the sneakers model and point the camera at your feet.

Another helpful technology for online shoppers is a virtual try-on of jewelry. Accessories, watches and jewelry are the third most returned category of products. Among the main reasons for returns, consumers mention the inappropriate size and fit as well as a discrepancy between the product and the customer's expectations. Virtual jewelry try-on can solve this problem and reduce the number of product returns.

For instance, NIKA, the leading manufacturer of jewelry watches in Russia, has created a virtual fitting room with the Cappasity solution. To try on a piece of jewelry, a consumer needs to scan a QR code of the watch on the NIKA website. The virtual try-on allows the user to choose their wrist size in centimeters or inches and try on the watch to see how it fits before making a purchase. A virtual fitting room will help the shopper make an informed purchase decision, which is especially important for expensive items such as jewelry and watches.

AR Technologies Will Help Online Stores Break New Ground

Online retailers will grow sales and profits if they provide consumers with the best online user experience. Since the online shopper needs to study a product as they would offline, improving the customer experience is impossible without integrating AR technologies. Interactive AR content increases consumer engagement, attracts attention to the brand, and boosts conversion. The only question is how quickly online retailers will adapt their strategy to new customer needs.

Kosta Popov is the CEO and founder of Cappasity, the company providing an easy and scalable platform for creation, embedding and analysis of 3D and AR/VR content.