AR Trial Rooms are Transforming Shopping
Customers are increasingly finding the idea of “going shopping” irrelevant, and instead expect shopping to come to them. Virtual reality gives customers the chance to experience a product first-hand, almost as if in real, yet not.
Up until a few years ago, hearing the terms Minecraft and Roblox would lead one to think of games you’d find mostly children, and some adults too, playing on their systems. Augmented reality was a technology limited to the entertainment industry. And now, the concept of virtual worlds has really taken on with large-scale international brands across beauty, healthcare, grocery, etc., launching their own versions of virtual stores.
What’s more, audiences are reacting well to it. Customers across the globe are walking into these virtual stores, roaming around, doing window shopping and even making real purchases. Take Amazon for instance.
Amazon’s Virtual Holiday Shop
Imagine entering a retailer’s store right at the peak of the holiday season. You’d hear holiday songs in the background, witness bright lighting across the store, huge discount cards hanging around, with brands highlighting their respective sections in the best way possible. This festive environment is replicated perfectly in Amazon’s virtual holiday shop launched earlier this month.
Compelling visuals, interactive content, and must-have selections form the key elements of Amazon’s virtual holiday shopping experience. Brands showcased across the store include Beats x Kim Kardashian, Kate Spade, Bumble and Bumble, and Coach. In the virtual toy shop, games and activity kits from the likes of LEGO, Play-Doh, and Disney, as well as from small businesses like Rainbow Loom, MAGNA-TILES, and Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, are on display.
“We’re always innovating to enhance the shopping experience and empower customers to discover products in easy and fun ways,” said Carmen Nestares Pleguezuelo, Vice President of North America Marketing & Prime Tech. “With the Virtual Holiday Shop, we are excited to transport shoppers into a new immersive experience where they can browse over 300 of the most coveted gifts and toys of the season.”
With virtual stores, you are basically online shopping like usual—adding items to your cart and checking out—but experiencing virtual fun along the way. The browsing experience upgrades from simply scrolling down your screen to virtually walking around and participating in immersive activities that stimulate the mind’s sensations.
Virtual Try-Ons: It’s like you’re right there!
Virtual reality gives customers the chance to experience a product first-hand, almost as if in real, yet not. The exact emotion is “It’s like you’re there, even though you’re not.”
Want to see how that single sofa would look in the library corner?
Brands like IKEA are leading the way in the interior space by offering immersive experiences to customers. Launched in 2017, the IKEA Place app was one of the first AR tools that allowed users to virtually place furniture in their homes using smartphones. Currently, shoppers can walk through IKEA stores virtually, sitting physically in their homes. IKEA has also created virtual showrooms that allow customers to explore, customise, and visualise furniture in their homes.
Brands like WayFair and Target have also made a name in the “try it in your home” space. Paint company Dulux offers customers the option to scan their walls and visualise how they would appear in different shades of paint.
Want to match the lip shade with your skin tone?
Beauty brands like Sephora are revolutionising shopping and adding a personal touch by offering customers opportunities to try on make-up virtually using VR headsets. Using facial recognition, Sephora’s app turns into a personal virtual makeup assistant.
Buying shoes online but unsure of the size scale?
Nike introduced Nike Fit, which offers precise sizing recommendations for its shoes by scanning your feet with a smartphone camera. Nike Fit utilises augmented reality to measure your feet and the sizing suggestions are generated leveraging AI.
Gucci also offers an in-app AR try-on feature that lets customers overlay Ace sneakers over their feet. The fashion brand launched the “Gucci Garden Experience” in 2021 on the Roblox gaming platform, where users could explore a virtual space based on its physical exhibition in Florence, Italy. Customers could personalise their avatars by purchasing exclusive digital items.
Customers are increasingly finding the idea of “going shopping” irrelevant, and instead expect shopping to come to them. In fact, this is expected to be a significant change in the retail space in 2025. Most recently, luxury brand Burberry launched its first virtual scarf try on offering, where customers can scan a QR code with their mobile phones and view the scarf styled on themselves in real-time.
In a LinkedIn post, Seema Kukadia, Digital Innovation Manager at Burberry, said, “Using the latest in web 3D and augmented reality technology, our new immersive experience encourages customers to virtually explore Burberry’s iconic scarves and visualise how the brand’s best known accessory will look.”
Earlier this year, Walmart enhanced its Beauty Virtual Try-On feature to include hair colour products. The tool allows people to experiment with various colour cosmetics and hair shades in real-time. The retailer also expanded its augmented reality and virtual reality offerings with the launch of a new Optical Virtual Try-On service. Customers can virtually try on frames and purchase prescription eyewear online through the Walmart app or directly on the retail giant’s website.
In an online post, Tom Ward, EVP and Chief eCommerce Officer Walmart US and David Reitnauer, VP Optical, Walmart Health & Wellness, said, “We know that helping customers better visualise how products will look in real life not only saves them time but also gives them confidence that the items they need are going to work for them and their lives.”
“With adaptive retail, Walmart is bringing the best aspects of any one channel to the other, so in recent years, it has increased investments in AR and VR technologies to better assist customers in envisioning how fashion, beauty and home items would look virtually.”
Customers Want It.
Brands are capitalising well on AR and VR technologies, thanks to customer sentiment leaning in favour of the trend. As per a study created by Vogue Business and Snap Inc, 72% of luxury fashion consumers in the UK say it’s important that brands provide AR solutions as part of their shopping experiences, with many expecting to use AR increasingly over the next one to three years when shopping.
Virtual Try-On Over Store Dressing Rooms
Shoppers are in love with augmented reality to the extent that they’d rather try on products virtually than visit a store and use the dressing rooms. As per the Vogue-Snap study, customers find virtual try-on useful, reporting “being able to try on products in the comfort of my home” and “being able to try on as many products as I like” as the leading benefits (67% and 63%, respectively).
Further, AR lets brands duplicate the metaverse experience as closely as possible and measure how the use of new technology is impacting conversion by assessing how much time a customer spent using it, and whether they returned for the experience.
Runways Were Never So Accessible!
As per the Vogue whitepaper, customers love the thrill of seeing innovation modelled in the form of runways, virtually, with 73% of consumers saying they are aware of AR and VR runways. Education, advice, and interactivity were identified as the top priorities for customers in AR experiences:
- Digital tools that offer styling tips and wardrobe consultations
- Explore a runway collection either offline or online
- Being taught via virtual tutorials and motion guides how to repair, care for and/or customise an item
- Exploring a brand’s story or design process through interactive/immersive ways
- In-store navigation and immersive in-store product guide
Virtual influencers, AI clienteling, and voice commerce are the next predicted trends in the retail sector’s AR offerings. Experts suggest it is best to think of augmented reality as the connector between the physical and the digital—”making the physical feel immersive and the digital shoppable.”
