Augmented Reality in Retail and Why You Need It in 2024

Augmented Reality is an immersive technology that enhances product presentation in retail by overlaying digital content (images, sounds, text and other digital content) on the real world environment. Augmented Reality in retail allows users to access these enhanced content through devices such as smartphones, tablets, or AR glasses. Constant efforts are being made to simplify and improve AR that can be accessed through browsers on mobile devices so that it reaches a wider audience.

Why Augmented Reality in Retail is the need of the hour?

Traditional marketing and product presentation tactics are yielding average outcomes with more and more brands coming up in the retail segment. Therefore, to stand out amidst the rising competition, retail brands must add the AR magic to the shopping experiences of their customers.

There is growing demand for immersive shopping experiences, from interactive content ideas to personalized advertising and product presentation. It is helping brands reach their target audiences with the right presentation to help them make confident decisions.

How AR enhances both the online and in-store shopping experience

Augmented Reality (AR) is enhancing shopping experience both online and in-store. It increases the excitement of consumers manifold with its immersive, and interactive nature and thus engage people shopping products both online and instore. Here’s how AR does this:

1.Role of AR in enhancing the Online Shopping Experience

Virtual Try-Ons

Traditionally, online shopping has always made customers hesitant if the product they buy will turn out to be good. It led to the unnecessary hassles of product return. However, with AR-powered virtual try-on features, online shopping has become the go-to option with people preferring to sit at home and shop their favorite products over eCommerce websites with greater confidence. From eyewear brands like Warby Parker and Lenskart to popular makeup brands like sephora and L’Oreal to footwear brand Nike and more have understood the demand of the hour and have introduced the virtual try-on feature to allow its customers to have online shopping experience which is nothing less than in-store visits.

Product Visualization

IKEA Place AR app is a classic example in place of an apt use of AR online in the retail furniture shopping where users can place and see how different varieties of furniture look in the customer’s intended areas in their home, offices, lawns or gardens. It allows them to see how furniture will  fit in their actual space. They can simply point their phones camera towards areas of the area and place 3D models of products like beds, sofas, tables, lamps and carpets in real time, to see if the items match their existing or planned decor.

2. Role of AR in Enhancing the In-Store Shopping Experience

In-Store Navigation and Wayfinding

Popular in-store retail brands like Lowe’s and The Home Depot have had an edge over their competitors by simplifying shopping struggles like navigating the product section for easy finding.

In the home improvement stores segment, both Lowe’s and The Home Depot have emerged as game changers. They were among the firsts to have experimented with AR-powered wayfinding features in their stores. Using their AR apps, customers could scan the store’s aisles to get directions to products they are looking for. It saved shopper’s time and guided them to the items faster, overcoming the challenges of navigating back-and-forth for items in large stores with complex layouts.

Interactive Displays

Tommy Hilfiger’s interactive dressing rooms with AR mirrors have impressed many. It allows customers to virtually try on clothes. They display multiple options including variations of colors, sizes and styles. People can switch between color, sizes and styles without physically changing clothes.

Benefits of Augmented Reality in Retail

Augmented Reality (AR) has added value to the various aspects of marketing and product presentation in retail, thus changing the norms of how retailers deal with customer’s demand in terms of content. AR offers a plethora of benefits that improves the shopping experience of customers and also leads to better business outcomes.

Thus AR drives higher customer engagement, and other important metrics like brand differentiation, higher brand recognition and thus sales and revenue.

1. Increased Customer Engagement

Both online and in-store retail brands are integrating AR into their product marketing in some or the other ways. For eCommerce websites to social media to product catalogs and magazines. All of these tactics have driven more eyeballs and elevated people’s interest. When customers can view products in AR and interact with them, it amplifies time-span and thus increases engagement.

2. Higher Conversion Rates and Lower Product Return

Higher product engagement often leads to conversion. When the customer can see products up and close in three-dimensional view and in AR by placing them in their own environment, it leads to a confident decision making. For instance, furniture brands like Wayfair and iKea have managed to significantly improve their conversion rates. Also, when customers make a confident buying decision, they are less likely to return them. It is also an important metric that impacts the performance of a business.

3. Brand Differentiation

Early adoption of Augmented Reality in retail has proven to be fruitful for many brands globally. Retail brands can improve the customer experience significantly and position themselves as futuristic and innovative. Again, Sephora was one of the first beauty retailers to integrate AR through its Virtual Artist AR app. It set the brand ahead of its competitors.

Similarly, L’Oreal added the virtual try-ons feature to their app to allow its customers to try various cosmetic products for a personalized shopping experience.

Nike has been an early adopter of AR. Nike uses AR both in-store and online to improve product discovery phase for its potential customers. Also, it provides virtual try-ons and product customization features to further the excitement and let customers make informed and confident purchase decisions.

Key Takeaways

By offering immersive and personalized shopping experiences, Augmented Reality in retail helps brands make customers feel more confident in their purchases. It offers benefits like enhanced engagement, higher time span and an elevated customer experience to drive higher conversion that cannot be compared to outcomes from traditional marketing and content tactics. In short, Augmented Reality creates a fun, interactive shopping experience that delivers outcomes. Start adding AR magic to your retail brand with the coding challenges, sign up to the PlugXR platform.