Augmented Reality Online Shop

Web AR

Sales

AR online shops have near-endless possibilities. They can make use of your webcam or use built-in cameras on mobile devices. You could even upload videos that then get ‘augmented’. These shops might allow customers to try on products, place them in their rooms, etc.

Benefits

The biggest benefit over a dedicated “Try It On” app is the accessibility of AR. If you, say, want to buy a pair of glasses, go to the company’s website, find a pair you like and want to ‘try it on’, there is no need for downloading anything. Otherwise, your customers would navigate through the app store and the search results, wait for the app to download, search for the glasses in the app, and then finally try them on. When AR is integrated into the website, the customer can try them right there. That makes it far more likely for the system to actually see any use and thus for online stores to benefit from it.

Challenges

Since such online shops are not very common yet, you’d have to find a web-developer studio that offers the service, implement it yourself, or convince your current web-dev to try it out. That is all either costly, time-consuming, risky, or all of them. Also, not all browser support technologies such as webXR, yet.

Take Away

An AR Online Shop could, amongst other features, greatly simplify the “Try It On” experience for the user. While presenting a couple of challenges, the technology and knowledge are becoming more common. With the demand for such shops, the supply of developer studios will grow too.

Online stores have greatly benefited from the COVID pandemic while physical stores lost customers. But online shops need to advance to stay first choice once life goes back to normal.