Market researchers and analysts claim: over 70% of customers expected retailers – both brick-and-mortar and online – to start using AR during 2018. Some of them expected retail brands to launch some kind of a mobile AR app, but most of them were ready for AR solutions incorporated into retail websites. Most retailers, however, are still lagging behind and aren’t even considering adopting AR to promote business goals.
So is it ultimately worth the effort and how could your company benefit from adopting AR?
An acronym for Augmented Reality (not to be confused with Virtual Reality), AR has been around since 1990-s and was initially a brainchild of US Air Force’s Armstrong Laboratory. “A technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view,” AR’s first commercial use was for gaming and entertainment purposes. Lately, however, it’s educational and interactive potential is gaining wider recognition. A vast majority of retail insiders and market analysts seem to be mesmerized by how AR could transform retail and change the way we shop once and for all.
AR application in retail
Anyone who has ever tried to shop for apparel online has come across this problem: it’s actually difficult to predict how the shoes or the piece of clothing of your choice will fit you, even if the sizes match completely. AR offers a solution by enabling brands to create a virtual alternative to fitting rooms. Lacosta has been among the first brands to adopt AR and bring users cool try shoes on option: it’s LCST Lacoste AR app is already enjoying immense popularity among users. The app lets customers choose shoe models from a brand’s recent collection and see how they fit without physically visiting the store. Targeted at young shoppers, the app has social features, enabling customers to share their look on social networks.
Furniture retailers are quickly following suit. IKEA has launched an AR app, allowing users to see how the furniture piece will look in their actual living space, taking furniture shopping to an entirely new level and avoiding returns.
Brick-and-mortar stores are also adopting AR: Sephora, for instance, allows visitors to try on different looks without having to put on any makeup, delivering new state of the art shopping experience. AR is helping brick-and-mortar stores avoid fitting room queues: Kinect has developed a virtual fitting room for Topshop outlet in Moscow for a new collection of dresses.
American Apparel is offering another service based on augmented reality by offering improved in-store experience: customers can now easily do without shop assistant by scanning the piece of clothing and reading all the info about available sizes, colors and matching items, including testimonials of previous shoppers in the app.
All in all, brands that are quick to embrace AR are perceived as innovative and forward-looking. However, there are reasons why AR adoption is taking longer than expected. Gartner principal research analyst Tuong Huy Nguyen says it will take 5 to 10 year before AR and VR become omnipresent.
One of the reasons is a lack of high-quality 3D design providing seamless user experience and convenient user interfaces. Most brands lack such expertise and experienced 3D professionals are in high demand. Customers are wary of using immersive technologies because of their influence on hearing and eyesight. “Noone wants to buy a device that gives you a headache,” Nguyen says. This, however, is sure to change in the upcoming years as brands refine their offerings and as head-mounted displays (HDMs) become widespread.
The technological barrier is one more thing that stands in the way. HDMs lack convenience and control and are not easily integrated with smartphones. Since 2015 mobile AR apps turning a phone camera into an optical device were available for Android, and in 2017 similar apps for iPhone had hit the market. The main drawback, however, was usability — although right now there’s a number of cool AR apps and books out there, consumers, in general, found having to hold a camera with one hand inconvenient. Taking this technology to the level when the price matches convenience will also take time. But even though sooner or later tech brands will offer sleek and affordable solutions, some experts believe consumer adoption of AR will take almost as long as it took the Internet to become mainstream.
Another roadblock is lack of resources: bandwidth and cloud capacities. The geospatial AR cloud, “a real-time spacial map of the world”, the digital twin that would allow for contextually aware headset interfaces and social interaction is still in the making. When it finally becomes mainstream it’s set to revolutionize the way we organize and view information and would signify a shift from textual info to its visual presentation in the real time.
The good news is — it’s definitely going to take longer than it took smartphones to drive push button phones out of the market. You still have time to define business processes where AR use could promote your business, develop your AR strategy and start looking for a reliable partner to further its implementation. At VARTEQ we have started working on augmented reality projects as we strongly believe them to be among the most promising facets of digital transformation.