Augmented Reality Is the Next Big Thing in the E-commerce
Online shopping has seen a great spike in its growth over the past few years. The only shortcoming it has is that people can’t feel, touch or try out the products firsthand before they reach their doorsteps after making a purchase. On the contrary, brick-and-mortar shops allow buyers to give trials to the products prior to the purchases. After the advent of augmented reality (AR) technology, it seems like the end of e-commerce is just around the corner.
Why so? Because AR enables users to try the products via a screen in real-time in their own environment. That somewhat bridges the gap between physical stores and online shops. Consequently, traditional e-commerce is going to lose dominance in the market, instead online shops equipped with AR technology will reign in the kingdom of the ecommerce industry.
Why is AR the next big thing?
The future of ecommerce largely depends on the integration of AR technology. Don’t just take our words for it, the rise of AR is well documented by statistics. AR expenditure reached almost 60 billion USD in 2020. Over 60% of online shoppers prefer an AR-enabled ecommerce company over a conventional one. 63% of online shoppers believe that AR has the potential to transform their shopping experiences. 70% of them say that they would become more loyal to brands that would incorporate AR technology into their online shops. All these numbers are talking on behalf of AR technology, being the next big thing in the ecommerce industry.
How does AR bring reality to online shopping?
The idea is simple. AR adds multiple layers of digital information to our physical world and displays computer-generated images placed in the real world through a digital screen. Thus, people can see things from a new perspective, and experience a product in a real environment before buying it.
AR technology has the ability to reduce the product return rate to a great extent by providing customers with the facility to watch 3D models of the products they want to buy. They also can customize the products using AR technology and get products of the right colors and sizes. AR enhances customers’ trust and confidence in products and improves the conversion rate.
Moving from E-commerce to AR-commerce
Let’s embrace this new term ‘AR-commerce’. Here, AR-commerce refers to augmented reality-based ecommerce services. AR-commerce will soon take the place of ecommerce because of its ever-growing popularity in recent years. With AR, online retailers are offering a more personal and interactive buy-and-sell environment that is transforming the online shopping experience of online shoppers to a great degree. Unlike traditional ecommerce stores, AR allows customers to preview their products in their real-world environment, in real-time. Ecommerce stores have already started to integrate AR into their businesses. Check out the following uses of augmented reality in ecommerce.
Virtual try-on
Augmented reality successfully reduces the ambiguity related to e-commerce purchases. It helps customers visualize the products in their own context of the physical environment. Thus they can perform a virtual try-on before purchasing any item from an online shop. Furniture and home accessories company IKEA has introduced its augmented reality enabled app IKEA place and achieved significant success from it. People can now see if a specific piece of furniture suits the surroundings of their rooms. Even they can customize the size and color as per their needs.
Beauty and cosmetic brands are using AR to its fullest potential. Selecting a color palette online and ending up with an ugly look wearing that in real life is a common phenomenon. Now consumers can try out several options and choose only the ideal one that suits their faces. Renowned cosmetic brand Sephora has adopted AR technology and achieved enormous success.
Imitation of in-store experiences
As a lot of people prefer buying from physical stores to have an in-store experience, AR also imitates this idea to engage consumers in the buying process. Starting from a live chat with the shop representatives to trying out the selected products, people get an in-store experience when they shop from a-commerce shops.
Virtual measurement app
It's more convenient to buy fitting shoes and dresses from brick-and-mortar stores. AR made that possible in ecommerce. Now you can virtually try out a product comprising the right size. AR provides a better solution to put an end to the fitting issues. This is a revolutionary addition in ecommerce stores and it can minimize product return rate drastically.
AR user manual
Some products involve many complexities in the ways they operate. Buyers need to take help from the user manuals. AR technology brings more engaging, user-friendly, and useful user manuals consisting of step-by-step visual guides. Users can easily understand the operational procedures with the help of these detailed manuals. Augmented reality technology integrates an immersive 3D experience to provide useful and straightforward user manuals for the consumers.
Social media filters
Every popular social media platform has already introduced hundreds of AR filters to increase user engagement and improve their experience. At first, it was intended to add more fun to social media activities. But now, AR comes with huge business potential. Brands can use AR filters via their business profiles or pages to allow visitors to try out their products virtually. Facebook and Instagram are the two social media that make use of AR technology to boost up brand awareness, engagement, and sales for the retailers.
How AR-commerce is better than E-commerce
Customer engagement: Augmented reality is gradually transforming the ecommerce industry. It has made online shopping more accessible and engaging for prospective customers. Buyers get a better look at the product and can determine if it perfectly fits their needs. According to a stat, AR facility improves customer engagement by 66%. And the reason is obvious. People spend more time on an AR-enabled website even if they don't have a buying intention.
Conversion rate: AR also helps boost the conversion rate. The average conversion rate of traditional e-commerce is around 3%, with AR it reaches 11%. This happens because AR comes with more trustworthiness allowing visitors to have a virtual try-on session. Buyers can now see how a product fits in their own space. This facilitates their buying decision and eventually boosts sales for the retailers.
Customization and modification: Most customers tend to try out numerous products before finalizing their choice. Previously, it was quite difficult for ecommerce customers to explore many choices. AR made it possible for them to modify or customize their products in terms of designs, patterns, colors, and more.
Premium feeling: According to research, 40% of online shoppers are ready to pay more for a product if the retailer allows them to view that specific product via AR. AR has a psychological impact on buyers’ minds. Studies say that people see Items shown in AR as more worthy of their money than products shown in typical ecommerce stores. AR makes products more desirable and adds a premium feeling to them. Thus, one can make more profits with a-commerce than ecommerce.
Royex Technologies, a leading Website, Mobile App, and E-commerce Development Company in Dubai, have certified developers who can bring reality to any of your ideas. We have experience in developing over 300 projects for our clients in the GCC which includes several E-commerce websites, service applications, etc, so we have the expertise perfect for your e-commerce requirements. If you need an eCommerce website with SEO optimizations, feel free to call us at +971566027916 or mail us at info@royex.net and we can send you a proposal based on your idea.