Transforming Luxury Retail using
Augmented Reality

MAY 10 / NAMAN AJMERA
Imagine that you need to purchase a new TV for your living room that you are just getting done. You are unsure of where to affix the TV, which wall, and deciding the seating arrangement. Requires a simple solution. What if you can just use your phone camera pointing to different walls and a virtual TV is projected on your wall through the phone?

You can exactly see how the TV would look without even bringing one home. That’s the power of the latest tech called Augmented Reality (AR), a tool that’s redefining the luxury retail shopping experience.

IInitially, AR was strongly associated and achieved its fame through the AR game “Pokemon Go”. It helped gain widespread awareness among the millennials and Gen Z.

Due to its virality, forward-thinking brands immediately got to work in researching different ways to leverage AR in retail to attract the youth and gain brand loyalty.

AR for Retail

Soon enough, several innovative retail brands created AR experiences for their customers in the jewelry, fashion and lifestyle industries. Augmented Reality in luxury retail has the ability as well as the scalability to provide a huge boost to shopping experiences, especially in ecommerce.

The primary factor that differentiates a Luxury brand from others is the customer experience. Augmented Reality shopping experiences are now a qualified factor that can be used to enhance customer engagement and satisfaction.

Enhancing In-store Experience 

Virtual Try-On Technology for Apparel and Accessories

What happens when you go shopping for your favourite apparel brand, and you end up liking too many designs and products. You run to the trial room for all of ‘em only to see that there’s a long queue to get in.

Well, use of Augmented reality can save you the time and efforts. You can now use AR based screens with front camera that work as a mirror to find out how your selected product would look on you. In fact AR also facilitates trial even if the product is not available at that time in the store. This allows the customer to choose from a bigger variety of designs. Use of such technology also instils fondness of the brand in the minds of the customer.

Bringing In-store Experience to Customer's Home

Augmented Reality ecommerce is definitely capable of luring customers to a brand’s site or its app. It is the experience for customers that counts. Through AR in ecommerce, various designs and products of a brand can be displayed to the customers without having to physically visit the store. The AR tech enhances online shopping experiences by allowing the customer to even try the designs at her own convenience.

This especially works well when the user is an existing customer of the brand. The brand can leverage this technology to upsell products using AR, based on the customer's previous purchases. AR can thus facilitate a spurt in ecommerce sales.

Brands Using AR in Luxury Retail

IKEA – AR Furniture Visualization App

The famous furniture brand has deployed an AR app for its customers, who can see a variety of home furnishing products and project the same using their mobile camera to see how a particular product will look in their home.

Tanishq – Augmented Reality Jewelry Experience Stores

The famous Indian jeweller has launched Augmented Reality jewelry experience stores at Delhi and Bengaluru airports where customers can see a variety of designer pendants, necklaces and earrings and how it would look on them, without actually trying. And the best part, these experience stores by Tanishq will have zero inventory. The customers can enquire about a particular design through the interactive mirror-like screen that enables display of all product features and purchase options.

Zara – Augmented Reality Shopping App

Zara has launched AR shopping experiences across 120 stores worldwide. After downloading the app to your phone, you can point the camera at everything from a mannequin to an empty Zara store window, to the screen on your e-commerce purchase and the clothing will come to life on a model. Though it is not available to showcase the clothing on yourself, this is a unique feature. Their app also has social sharing icons that allow customers to share their experiences.

Tanishq – Augmented Reality Jewelry Experience Stores

Lacoste, the iconic French sports brand launched its AR footwear try-on experience that allows users to try various shoe designs. Lacoste is one of the first to combine 3D scanning with AR in retail. The app uses in-store point-of-sale to allow shoppers to see what the new product would look like on their foot without actually having to try them on.

There are several other brands such as Burberry, De Beers, Adidas, etc., that have launched AR tech to enhance customer experience in retail. Being adaptive and ahead of the times with use of such technology is what makes these brands stand out from the rest.

Cost-Effective AR Solutions for Retail Brands

One of the best ways for aspiring brands to accelerate their awareness campaigns is to leverage the use of cost-effective Augmented Reality solutions for retail brands. This helps smaller brands reduce inventory costs and at the same time be able to provide a variety of product designs to the customers in the stores. Such products can then be delivered to the customers on an order basis.

Brands can also use AR as a product launch tool, allowing quirky ways to try new collections. For example, adding social features to their AR app would allow users to share snaps of themselves trying the launched product using AR. This way, the brand can gain digital momentum and visibility.

How Can You Use AR Tech for Your Business

There are many AR developers for jewelry and apparel brands who specialize in developing AR experiences — such as Creative Engine, StyleDotMe, etc. These developers can assist based on the brand’s specific usage and target audience.

In fact, a few developers have already launched their own ready-to-use AR apps for retail, which brands can use for a certain fee. This can be cost-effective for small luxury brands, as they get a readymade AR app without the need for in-house development. We came across certain AR developers during our research who offer AR experiences starting at just USD 1430 (INR 1,00,000).

Augmented Reality tools for small retail businesses are a boon for those trying to carve a niche in their product category. The earlier they adapt to such disruptive technologies, the bigger the scalability and impact.
Naman Ajmera
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Final Thoughts

Hope the above has given you some good insights on how luxury brands are using Augmented Reality. To be the first one to read our blogs, SUBSCRIBE NOW!
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