Augmented Reality

Much has been made of the increasingly prominent role of e-commerce within retail — and rightfully so. A number of big-name retailers have dedicated both time and money attempting to challenge Amazon.com's market dominance. When it comes to keeping their brick-and-mortar locations around despite a flurry of e-commerce growth, retailers need to get creative. Virtual…

Much has been made of the increasingly prominent role of e-commerce within retail — and rightfully so. A number of big-name retailers have dedicated both time and money attempting to challenge Amazon.com’s market dominance. When it comes to keeping their brick-and-mortar locations around despite a flurry of e-commerce growth, retailers need to get creative. Virtual […]

Tune in to learn how to use digital experiences to capture the interest, loyalty and dollars of Generation Z and millennial consumers.

Primarily driven by the ubiquitous presence of mobile devices, today's retail experiences are becoming less "place-specific" and more driven by an individual shopper's context — i.e., wherever and whenever they choose to focus and shop. Technology advancements continue to drive alignment across all retail touchpoints, and this year’s National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show introduced…

The owner of Snapchat, Snap Inc., has acquired Israeli augmented reality (AR) start-up Cimagine Media for a reported $30 to $40 million, according to CNBC. Retailers should be intrigued by this acquisition because Cimagine Media makes software that allows businesses or consumers to visualize what an item might look like in their environment. Snapchat already…

The new “View in Room” feature on the Wayfair mobile app allows shoppers to see how furniture and home décor will look in any room before they purchase it. Similar to trying on clothes in a dressing room, Wayfair now allows app users to “try on” products via a smartphone camera. By clicking the View…

This week, retail professionals gathered in Dallas for Shop.org, Retail’s Digital Summit. Attendees heard from retailers leading the way in this quickly evolving digital world. Presentations from J.C. Penney, True&Co, Rocksbox, Google, Facebook and many more brands covered topics ranging from omnichannel integration to mobile to reaching millennials. Here are a few key takeaways from the…

The most massive and unexpected retail success story of the summer so far wasn't really even about retail. It was about catching, training and battling virtual monsters. The Pokémon Go augmented reality (AR) app was released in North America on July 6. It was downloaded approximately 7.5 million times in the first week and was…

Ever since early July, it’s hard to go anywhere without seeing someone staring down at their phone, aimlessly wandering around and twirling in circles every few feet. The cause: Pokémon Go. Pokémon Go is an augmented reality (AR) game from Japan’s Nintendo Co., where players hunt virtual characters in a real-time, real-world environment — as…

Pokémon Go. It’s so big right now it has its own meme catalog (it’s about 50 percent NSFW, so I’ll eschew the direct link, but please feel free to do some searches on your own), it’s sparked tens of thousands of social interactions and even if you don’t love it and spend time joking about…