It’s an undeniable fact that nowadays customers are feeling more comfortable with online shopping. However, there are some challenges that companies have to take up to enhance their e-business. The major disadvantage of shopping online is that customers cannot touch, feel, or try a product, not to mention see how it will fit in their house. Thus, this lack of interactivity in the decision-making process results in a larger number of empty carts. Fortunately, as well as e-commerce, technology develops and evolves all the time. Augmented Reality Ecommerce Solutions present an effective way for implementing a touch-and-feel element to e-shopping.
AR Impact on Shopping Experience
Basically, Augmented Reality offers a real-time direct or indirect view of consumer’s immediate surroundings changed or improved by computer-generated information such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. With AR technology, customers can use real-life spaces and even their bodies and faces to check out if such things as furniture, clothing, etc. suit them. Thus, the major benefit of AR is that it merges two worlds, the digital and the real ones.
The Evident Pros of AR
- Exhilarating Customer Experience
AR high-techs help customers to visualize an item they want to buy by converting the imagination into reality. Furthermore, according to the up-to-date study, 61% of the consumers would rather buy things at e-shops that offer augmented reality, than at ones that don’t.
- Ability of Modification and Customization
AR technology provides buyers with an opportunity to express their preferences when online shopping. Besides, as indicated by the recent research, 77% of consumers would like to use augmented reality to observe product diversities such as a change in color or style.
- Touch-and-Feel Factor
To feel confident during e-shopping, a customer needs to be able to observe an item and be aware of its functions. That is why plenty of e-store owners provide their customers with demo videos. Despite the fact that such instructional videos are really useful, augmented reality improves this method by supplying their clients with impressive-quality 3D holograms. As determined by the new study, 40% of the shoppers would be willing to pay more for an item if they could observe it via AR first.
Augmented Reality eCommerce Solutions Already Presented on the Market
Offering evident advantage, AR technology has quickly conquered the market. Moreover, it’s completely changed the way we shop. Nowadays to be noticed in this highly competitive world, there is the need for e-store changes such as using augmented reality technology. Brands like eBay, IKEA, and Alibaba have already integrated AR into their business, which let them achieve impressive results (according to the recent reports, IKEA app has been downloaded 8.5 million times).
Fortunately, more and more augmented reality companies appear to enable the retailers to get their business to the next level. Let’s take a closer look at some top Augmented Reality Ecommerce Solutions available on the market.
Layar
Layar was established in 2009 and quickly became the global leader in the field of Augmented Reality. Its open development platform attracts people from all over the world to create their AR content. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The National, and BBC News have written about this Augmented Reality eCommerce company, its development, achievements, and features.
Lots of worldwide brands have already used Layar to enhance their business. Here are some good customer study examples:
- Dutch auto club ANWB complemented with Layar to improve the pages of Kampioen (the 4th largest magazine in Europe).
- International automaker Nissan teamed Layar to launch a massive interactive print campaign across 12 Canadian newspapers.
- Canadian publisher Glacier Media implemented interactive print from Layar in 12 of its daily and weekly local newspapers.
Blippar
Blippar is a mobile AR and image recognition platform that provides retailers to reach their customers through outdoor ads, billboards, newspapers, etc. It unlocks digital content to bring physical objects to life. Blippar has been featured in many media sources like The Telegraph, BBC News, Business Insider, Forbes, and more.
This platform shapes the way people connect with the world. Here are some examples of its custom solutions (just download the app and watch):
- Blippar and Oreo teamed up to activate an opportunity for Walmart shoppers to elect the next innovative Oreo flavor to be featured in stores in 2017.
- Shortlist Magazine brought the world of the Hobbit to its readers with a blippable cover. Blipping the cover gave users instant access to exclusive trailers and a chance to win a copy of the famous book.
- Meet the 7 farmers is the Blippar app and a bottle of Heineken. By scanning the label, consumers access Heineken's sustainability report, a story of each farmer and a "Legendary 7elfie" to share on social media.
Augment
Augment is an enterprise AR platform established in 2011 that offers solutions across sales, marketing, design, and e-commerce. Their mission is to merge the physical and virtual experiences, which has been noted by such press outlets as ProductionHUB, PCMag, The Guardian, Entrepreneur, and others.
The company has helped businesses representing different industries. In particular, here are a couple of representative case studies:
- Captured Dimensions has expanded its core-service offers and suggestions by having used Augment’s technology. The company mixed 3D scanning and augmented reality for the music group Anamanaguchi. As a result, fans are provided with a possibility to scan the album cover with Augment to make a 3D member of the band appear.
- Turnstangen.de, a company specializing in gymnastic bars and sandboxes for kids design and sell, enhanced the online shopping experience by integrating Augment directly into the Turnstangen.de e-store. As a result, the consumers can select their favorite playground pieces on the website, and then launch Augment to visualize them in real size in their backyard.
Total Immersion
Total Immersion is a global leader in virtual try-on and augmented reality solutions for e-commerce, mobile commerce, retail, and brand marketing. Total Immersion, previously D'Fusion, enabled the fusion of reality and animation that came to be known as Augmented Reality (AR). The very first AR image produced by this company came to life in 2004. Its client list includes such brands as Toyota, Lavazza, Milka, e-Bay, Paramount Pictures, and lots more.
Marxent
Marxent is a known leader in VR and AR product visualization for sales and marketing. The VisualCommerce™ SaaS platforms powers AR apps for leading retailers and manufacturers. In particular, it operates many 3D items, collections, and configurations, and enables brands to publish their 3D content to any AR or VR device. Just as other solutions mentioned in the article, Marxent has also been featured in many media sources like Forrester, Dayton Business Journal, and CNBC.
Marxent works with innovative companies such as ToysRUs, Simmons Bedding Company, Hammacher Schlemmer and AZEK Building Products. Here is a striking user story:
- A project of Lowe’s Home Improvement, the Loweâs Holoroom, used Marxent’s VisualCommerce™ to populate a 3D space with actual products so that its shoppers could design their perfect bathroom or kitchen and literally walk into it.
If you’d like to see other AR solutions, check out Modiface, Cimagine, Preksh, FitYour, Metaio, GeoVector, Inglobe Technologies, Aurasma, and Triple.
The Augmented Reality eCommerce Integration Process
The augmented reality platform creation is a complicated process because there is the need for establishing multiple connections. The primary difficulty of AR commerce software is the data retrieving from the web stores. This problem leads to the necessity to integrate with shopping carts. Because of the complicated procedure, lots of B2B software services choose to support a limited amount of shopping carts. And as a result, they are missing out on potential customers and revenue.
Fortunately, there is a way to integrate with numerous shopping carts and to avoid the common integrational pitfalls at the same time. API2Cart provides a unified API that enables your system to interact with over 40 shopping carts simultaneously. It enable to connect to Magento, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Amazon, OpenCart and many other popular platforms.
If you run an augmented reality application for retailers and are interested in integrating your solution with shopping carts, you can either schedule a consultation with our representative or try how API2Cart would work for your business.
