Augmenting the Future of Retail
In the ever-evolving landscape of retail, where innovation meets consumer demands, there exists a transformative force that is reshaping the very fabric of how we shop — Augmented Reality (AR). Beyond its current applications, AR is poised to redefine the future of retail, offering an immersive and personalized shopping experience that transcends conventional boundaries and mixes culture with commerce.
This article will be referring to mobile AR and applications that currently exist rather than a techno optimistic look at a future that is (as they say) just around the corner.
Snap your fingers, and you can deploy a content experience from one of your brand evangelists in-store. Pokemon Go for culture.
The Evolution of Shopping Paradigm
AR’s integration into retail marks a paradigm shift, where the boundaries between physical and digital commerce dissolve. It’s no longer a matter of online versus in-store; it’s about a seamless convergence of the two, enhancing customer engagement and redefining the shopping journey. We need not wait for this evolution in commerce to happen, it’s happening as we speak, transforming the way we approach the brand experience. The following are a couple of samples of how augmented reality is being implemented across the retail category:
Personalization Redefined
AR empowers retailers to offer personalized interactions, allowing customers to virtually try on clothes, visualize furniture in their homes, and even receive tailored product recommendations based on preferences and past behavior.
According to Shopify, interactions with products having 3D/AR content showed a 94% higher conversion rate than for products without AR/3D. The Shopify AR visualization tool has helped customers see the value of their purchases up close and personal, and in their physical environment.
There’s a lot to be discussed around the topic of 3D environments, 3D studios of production, 3JS, and the ever evolving suite of features that can be natively integrated into an augmented reality scene. But for now, the power of observing an item in the world tricks our brain enough to provide commercial value.
Due to the phones computer vision, each experience feels truly personalized to the environment. It also, fosters a deeper connection between the customer and the brand, cutting down the steps in the buying process, and preventing returns for the business. We’ll dive into product try-ons further on in this article. The concept of introducing a digital object natively into one’s environment taps into brain processes that develop a tighter connection.
Blending Reality and Imagination
The Brain treats augmented reality objects the same way it treats physical ones.
One of the secret powers of augmented reality is its ability to create a physiological response. “Presence” or the idea that something is actually spatially situated, is indistinguishable between what we see in AR and what we see physically, stimulating memory creation and more empathy. Other than triggering my appetite for donuts, there are some solid brand use cases.
Customers can explore an entire product range through AR-powered displays or witness the story behind a brand’s ethos through immersive visual narratives. As a fan of Whiskey and being part Irish, I did a bit of digging and found that the Whiskey world has caught onto this format for storytelling. In fact, Glenlivet, Jamesons, and Jack Daniels, all have provided some level of AR visualizations and stories tied to their physical product. Most of these stories talk about their unique processes, provide walk throughs of their distilleries, and present AR oak barrels “present” in one’s living room.Redefining In-Store Dynamics (without being Dystopian)
Case Study: Jack Daniels
Bringing the distillery experience to your home through augmented reality
This convergence of reality and imagination elevates the shopping experience from a transactional moment to an experiential journey. I do believe these activations could have gone a step further, by moving beyond an ephemeral content experience and into a longer content funnel tied to a loyalty/engagement flow that transcends at home and in store shopping, but I’ll save this for another article…
Redefining In-Store Dynamics
I do believe in-store dynamics will change through the use of augmented reality, however, I don’t think it will be because of a heads-up display (H.U.D.) seen in the parody video below titled “hyper-reality”.
For the record, I’m not advocating this kind of future. On the contrary. At the risk of going too far into Neal Stephenson territory, the TL;DR is we don’t need a H.U.D. to have a valuable retail experience with mobile AR.
Rather, I believe retail will first find value in pulling the recommendations, reviews, and real-time information about certain products. At Illust, we’re starting to see this in the Cannabis market, where customers can scan the packaging to pull up a real time profile of the THC/CBD content which is tied to the API of Metrc (compliance software). It won’t be long until this also ties in with Jointly and other recommendation engines.
AR overlays that help you stroll through a store feel a bit unnecessary at this point with mobile-based augmented reality. I’ve never been troubled by optimizing my routes in a store to save time, but then again, I’ve never been a contestant on Supermarket Sweep.
The Rise of Social Commerce
AR’s integration with social media opens avenues for social commerce like never before. Customers can engage in shared AR experiences, virtually trying on products with friends or seeking opinions from online communities. Social media platforms such as Snap and Meta have done a good job with this, seeing that they’ve partnered with some of the major fashion and cosmetic companies in the world to deploy shareable try-on experiences which could also be integrated into their existing shopping platforms. Some of these include but are not limited to:
L’Oreal (Urban Decay, NYX, Maybelline, Lancome) x Meta
E.L.F Cosmetics x YouTube
Farfetch x Snap
Wacoal & Nike x AI Sizing App
Credit: Drip
This new social x digital element adds a new dimension to the shopping process, streamlining the buying experience and tying it to a social graph.
Affordability and Convenience
Instantly Available and Scheduled
The beauty of in-store augmented reality installations is that they don’t require a massive investment in physical displays and installations. AR experiences can be geofenced and/or scheduled for certain times of the year, relieving the stress of implementing new experiences based upon the season's demands, customer interests, and other just-in-time roll outs.
Data-Driven Retail Intelligence
So far I’ve covered the experience of augmented reality and its value to customers and retail partners alike. Arguably one of the strongest elements of integrating an AR stack into your retail strategy comes from the ability to pull invaluable insights into consumer behavior. It generates data on interaction patterns, preferences, and purchasing decisions, enabling retailers to fine-tune strategies, optimize inventory, and anticipate market trends with unprecedented precision. Tying these behaviors into a loyalty program will further scale the data available, creating a more informed profile to deliver products, recommendations, and content as well as a stoked customer and fan.
The Promise Ahead
By tying in one’s social graph to one’s purchasing behavior, there exists many opportunities for artists, creators, and storytellers to bring their experiences into the store format. Brick and mortar retail is looking more and more like experiential marketing, with stores providing a glimpse into a curated world that the brand embodies. At Illust, we look to extend this relationship further by providing unique cultural installments that can drive engagement, user-generated content, and ultimately purchase intent. Think a Pokemon Go for culture, we seek to foster the relationship between the phone’s camera and the way we engage commercially and socially.
Cultur-Ill
Providing a collection of digital Hip Hop artifacts coming to a brick and mortar near you.
In conclusion, augmented reality is not merely a technological advancement in retail; it’s a transformative force that reshapes how we perceive, interact, and engage with products and brands. It’s the bridge that connects imagination with reality, creating an immersive, personalized, and interconnected retail experience. We look forward to building this world with you and please feel free to reach out to us at https://illust.space to collaborate!
