How Augmented Reality Helps Retail Stores
The influence of the latest innovation trends is no minor role in the evolving marketing strategy of a brand. Mobile devices have become a vital element of the sales process, particularly when it comes to decision-making.
Augmented Reality (AR) is now emerging as a trendy innovative tool, allowing brands to interact with consumers via their mobile devices. AR creates a new and enriched digital experience, building up the relationship between consumer and brand. This trendy technology can be used anywhere, despite the location. Be it a PC at home, mobile devices, or kiosks in stores, AR benefits your store.
Traditionally, retailers and store owners relied heavily on print advertising campaigns, TV ads, or other media to promote products. The print media and in-store marketing efforts have now merged into a rich, comprehensive consumer experience via augmented reality.
The integration of augmented reality in the retail stores aims to boost the consumer relationship, generate more sales, and provide the consumer with a better shopping experience. Retailers have now a better chance to attract their target audience using multiple interactions of traditional and non-traditional ways.
Here are a few ways of how augmented reality can boost the retail sector:
Virtual Try-On 3D Products
A crowded store, packed with customers can steer you away from trying on products, even if you are in a need to get them. This problem has brought a few brands to try AR to combat this challenge. For example, the French Brand Lacoste’s AR app lets customers virtually try on shoes, with over 30,000 users with the products within the app since its release. Sephora, the personal care and beauty expert chain, has created a Virtual Artist App with Modiface to show how makeup products will look on their face, via their smartphone. Here is one way how AR can be a game-changer.
Visualize 3D Products At Home
Oftentimes, the in-store experience is less help to customers in visualizing how the products will fit in their homes. One of the biggest ways to overcome this challenge is using AR to offer the customers the opportunity to see products in their home before purchase.
For example, Magnolia Market, in partnership with Shopify’s AR team, created an app that lets customers visualize how the products will look in their homes. Augmented reality is helping them to decide if the products match the existing furniture, or fit well in the room.
Home Depot released its Project Color app, allowing users to see how a paint suits their room. The AR technology considers lighting, objects, and shadows in the room to provide a realistic portrayal of the appearance of wall paint in real life.
Virtual Trial Room
During a busy shopping season, trying out your favorite outfits can be a tiresome and lengthy process. Sometimes, a shopper might buy an item, try it on at home, and find it not suiting them, all because of a lengthy queue. Sometimes, the consumers find those apparels are not worth the queue.
AR can come to the rescue in these situations and make the lives of your customers easier. For example, Topshop has partnered with AR Door to use Kinect motion-sensing technology in creating a virtual fitting room for customers. By standing in front of the camera, customers are able to visualize how the clothes suit them without having to try them on physically. The same is the case with Timberland. AR can help in creating virtual trial rooms and cutting down the time spent on trying out outfits. This ensures that customers are happy and satisfied.
Brand Awareness
Even though augmented reality is becoming mainstream, the technology is still unique. Retail stores use a modern and innovative approach to improve their brand awareness. Airwalk uses geolocation and AR to create an “invisible” pop-up shop, as a promotion of the limited-edition relaunch of the Airwalk Jim. To purchase the shoe, customers need to go to a virtual pop-up store location via their AR app. This unusual and fun shopping experience resulted in $5 million in earned media, resulting in the busiest weekend of the eCommerce platform. By understanding their core demographic, Airwalk successfully built brand awareness for themselves.
(conclusion)
The list of examples mentioned above is just a few of the examples. The possibilities of using augmented reality for retail stores are endless. Using this innovative technology in your retail store can make your business smarter, efficient, attractive and user-friendly.
