How to Take e-Commerce to a New Level With Augmented Reality App Development

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Photo by Lux Interaction
Photo by Lux Interaction

The rapid growth and improvement of augmented reality give us a whole different view of the future. Before the release of Pokemon Go, no one could’ve imagined how big of an impact can just an AR game have on millions of people, making them perform real-life actions like going around a park, looking for these surreal creatures. Tech companies tend to adjust planning mobile app development to users’ requirements, as the majority of customers like using AR.

Just think of what would be like to implement augmented reality in the apps we use every day. How huge of an improvement in our user experience that would cause. The AR future is actually closer than you think.

Statistics reflect that the current value of that market stands at $3,5 billion and by next year there should be 1 billion augmented reality users. Furthermore, 70% of consumers tend to believe AR can bring them benefits.

Augmented Reality’s Impact on e-Commerce

Augmented reality will quickly make its way to the majority of users through e-commerce. That’s exactly what started boosting the industry. For many big companies, retail in a combination of augmented reality seems like a match made in heaven. According to the report, Virtual and Augmented reality will actually reshape retail by the end of next year.

The try-before-you-buy virtual experience is desired by e-commerce customers for years now. This technology has great potential with the development of AR. Any hesitations that customers used to have during shopping online won’t be obstacles owing to the real-life experimental interactions that AR provides.

Photo by Square
Photo by Square

Products’ Visualization Before Purchasing

Have you ever liked something online, but preferred to go to the shop and see it, because you weren’t sure if it’s the right choice? It happens to most of us. Augmented reality now brings a solution for that never-ending hesitation with experience even better than real-life shopping. It brings e-commerce to a new level with the functionality it provides.

The best example of what we’re talking about is the IKEA Place app. Instead of going to the shop to get a piece of bulky furniture that you may not like later, this app uses Augmented Reality to help you visualize a specific product on a place that you’d like to put it using only your device’s camera.
You can also switch products, alter their attributes and see how different items will compliment each other.

Easy Customer Acquisition

If you have struggled to find new customers for your business and retaining the one you already have, it means you should definitely check AR development for your e-commerce platform and these problems can become a thing of the past.

Experiencing your products or services in the augmented environment successfully overcomes the purchase pain points, but also adds a layer of social proof. Augmented interface experience is more likely to be shared on social networks as it easily catches the attention.

This can only drive more potential buyers to your e-Commerce page or app and increase their customer lifetime value, as you are getting more referrals. A user that is able to interact with a product via AR or VR is more likely to complete a sale as well, so you don’t have to face abandoned shopping carts that often anymore.

Eliminating Doubts and Reducing the Return Rate

The Augmented interface imitates real in-store experience. We know that when a customer buys something in-store it’s less likely that he returns it. This encourages e-Commerce vendors to try experience to the real-life as close as possible in order to reduce their return rate.

AR features also save time on making decisions as they are not that intuitive anymore. You can observe a 3D model of products and customize it to match your needs. All of this gives customers the ability to make a decision easier and wiser and to improve the purchasing rate of vendors.

Photo by Stephan Sorkin
Photo by Stephan Sorkin

Localization

Augmented reality interface provides the perfect opportunity to personalize e-Commerce offers, based on customers’ location, their interactions, daily choices, preferences, and needs.

FourSquare, for example, is already having wins using that localization data. In combination with augmented reality, you’re about to achieve e-commerce success.

Conclusion

Augmented reality has become one of the permanent trends and sticks to its strong position on the mobile app development market. When it comes to e-Commerce, AR enters a whole new level. To add to it, AR app development is able to give a real-life experience while shopping online. Isn’t that the thing that we’ve all asked for.

Many apps already succeeded using it and now customers prefer shopping in augmented interface apps, which makes AR the future of e-Commerce.

Dana Kachan
Dana Kachan is the author, keynote speaker, marketing consultant, and startup advisor. She has been consulting tech startups and established companies in the United States, Singapore, Poland, Israel, and Ukraine. Dana has been a guest marketing speaker at the World Digital Weeks 2021 and European Digital Week 2020. She is also a co-author of the book "Business-Driven Digital Product Design."

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