Augmented reality in eCommerce: How Does it Work?

Augmented reality in eCommerce: How Does it Work?

Statista predicts that the value of the augmented reality market with approximately 810 million active smartphone users shall be worth $30.7 billion. Moreover, roughly 400,000 augmented reality glasses have already been sold in the year 2021.

Augmented reality is a type of interactive technology frequently used on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. AR uses computer-generated music, textual, and visual effects to improve the user experience on a site or app.

Augmented reality can be the potential future of e-commerce and can substantially change how the products are sold in the online market. Whereas eCommerce businesses once rushed to embrace video as a revolutionary way of attracting customers and increasing traffic and conversions, augmented Reality (AR) is now positioned to change forever how items are marketed online.

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Advantages of using Augmented Reality in Ecommerce

Buyers could only see product pictures and videos on eCommerce to anticipate future usage and decide things. The addition of augmented reality to eCommerce has provided various advantages and some of which are:

1. Customer Engagement: Augmented Reality has drastically changed the type of experiential marketing. Augmented reality commerce provides better opportunities for engaging with the customers attracting them towards your platform.

2. Boost Sales: Augmented Reality, when used in eCommerce to increase engagement and attract potential clients towards your store, can lead to boosting your sales. Augmented reality is an excellent marketing strategy that can effectively attract customers and lead to more traffic generation and leads.

3. Customising Personal shopping experience: AR enhances purchasing experience and makes it more engaging and interactive. Thus, this helps the customer connect with the products. Users can customize the features, colors, and dimensions of the items which they want to see. This would give them a real shopping experience and thus enhance their shopping experience with your store.

4. High Customer Satisfaction and reduced Return Rates: Brands boost the client experience and, as a result, decrease returns by rendering online products “tangible.” This creates high possibilities of buyers adding products to their cart, increasing purchases. Businesses save money on shipping, refilling, and repackaging since they are less likely to return merchandise. It’s a win-win situation for businesses, both financially and in terms of client happiness.

Different types of Augmented Reality Applications

Different types of AR applications have different capabilities, and some of the common types of AR apps are:

1. Marker-based AR: Market-based AR or recognition-based AR identifies the product in front of the camera and displays information about the same. When the augmented reality eCommerce app detects the marker, the application replaces the screen with a 3D representation of the associated object. This enables the user to then view the object in considerable detail and from other angles.

2. Markerless AR: AR that isn’t activated by a specific object in the actual world is known as markerless AR. Alternatively, the viewer can drag and drop a virtual object wherever they want it. The object can then be rotated and moved.

3. Projection-based AR: Projecting artificial light onto tangible surfaces and letting people engage with it is what projection-based AR is all about.

4. Location-based AR: This kind of markerless AR displays digital content in specific areas depending on geographical position.
5. Outlining AR: While this sounds similar to projection, it is quite different. Whereas projection AR displays the entire product, outlining AR draws the outline of the lines of the product for you.

How Are Ecommerce Companies Using Augmented Reality?

If you are probably wondering about how to sell augmented reality via your eCommerce site, then these are some of the methods used by businesses:

1. Interactive user manuals: Providing interactive user manuals or handbooks for an AR application shall be instrumental in showing how the particular product works. When utilizing software, a site, or an app, an interactive user manual reacts to user actions and provides on-page contextual support. The augmented reality user manual apps scan the item and employ graphic arrows and transitions with text to identify the buttons in the real-world environment.

2. Virtual try-on solutions: Several eCommerce companies create virtual storefronts to provide customers with an appealing and nearly real-life online purchasing experience. As an eCommerce business, you provide a virtual shopping experience for users by developing a smartphone app that allows them to see the items they would in a physical store.

3. Social media filters: When it comes to engaging with new people on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, AR filters can help you reach new targeted customers significantly. Businesses can use social media filters to highlight the latest brand and persuade users to tag you in their posts when they are using the filter.

4. Preview placement: Looking at the product might not give an idea of how they shall otherwise look at your home or when you use it. This is where preview placement comes into play since they visually represent how the product shall look in your area.

Future of Augmented Reality in eCommerce

Augmented reality can eliminate the gap between the shopping experience felt in online and physical stores. A gap has become even greater due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which has forced retailers to close their doors, preventing customers from physically handling products.

Customers get a realistic view using augmented reality in digital e-commerce marketing, enabling them to connect with products in real-time from anywhere across the world. Moreover, augmented reality fashion e-commerce has more potential for success since buyers can now visualise the clothing or product and make better decisions.

One such successful augmented reality e-commerce example related to the fashion industry is the collaboration of Vertebrae and MOSCOT to incorporate virtual try-on features.

Customers may use the 3D model to view the designs from all angles and then use Augmented reality technology to see the glasses projected on their faces, taking into account their specific facial traits. MOSCOT claims that conversion rates have more than doubled since implementing the technology, with overall income among customers who used the 3D and VR growing by 174 percent.

An early adopter of augmented reality, IKEA pioneered the use of this technology in online shopping. It released the IKEA Put app in 2017, allowing customers to place thousands of items in their houses with 98 percent accuracy.

Conclusion

Global eCommerce companies are using augmented reality to improve the user experience, which is revolutionary.

Innovative AR technologies and applications are emerging, enabling it easier for companies and eCommerce providers to offer more immersive experiences right to their customers.

Smaller businesses and entrepreneurs must begin to think imaginatively about the solutions and products they provide if they want to expand their business operations in the realm of AR eCommerce. Even so, augmented reality is a game-changing technology.

It’s also going to change the way eCommerce companies show their products to clients online. Augmented reality applications and other technologies are more common in the areas of branding, user experience, and sales conversion.