No longer a figment of innovative imaginations and fictional futuristic stories, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology is increasingly having an impact on, well, reality.
This is especially true for retailers, as retail companies from around the omnichannel space look to appeal to customers by adding the tech to their stores and mobile apps.
Popular social networking app Pinterest, which bills itself as “the world’s catalog of ideas,” recently announced three new tools designed to help users find real-world objects and trends on the platform. The tools, called Lens, Shop the Look and Instant Ideas, respectively, are aimed at making the company’s content more immersive.
Similarly, in an effort to help customers better preview their purchases, online beauty platform Perfect Corp. recently announced a new augmented reality partnership with beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury that will allow consumers to upload photos of their faces to test different shades of lipstick in real-time with the YouCam Makeup app.
Meanwhile, clothing retailer H&M is layering data into its design process. The company’s digital fashion house, Ivyrevel, has formed a partnership with Google for a new development project called Coded Couture. The pair recently debuted what they’re referring to as a “DIY system,” which designs dresses through the use of the search giant’s Awareness API technology.
And, according to Beck Besecker, co-founder and CEO of Marxent, AR and VR can have particularly large impacts on home furnishing retailers. Marxent designs AR and VR solutions for retailers, including several large home retailers such as Ashley Furniture and Lowe’s.
Besecker told PYMNTS in a recent interview that this new technology is almost a perfect match for retailers like Ashley’s, Lowes and other home retailers, because they sell big ticket items that typically require extra thought and consideration from consumers before they are ready to make a purchase.
“What we do is provide a really easy application that both consumers and sales associates can use to help a customer visualize their potential purchase as easily and quickly as possible,” Besecker explained. “You can use AR and VR technology to help give a preview of what an item looks like in a room in a highly realistic, very fast way.”
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