Augmented Reality in Marketing – How many times have you shopped online and regretted the purchase? Many times. So how are brands tackling this issue and how are they using AR for their advantage?
AR or Augmented Reality is an interactive experience and a modification of a real-life environment where the objects are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information like the addition of sound, visual elements, or other sensory stimuli.
AR allows brands to give customers a unique, immersive and entertaining experience by trying products before they buy them, in order to help customers, make better shopping decisions and get customers engaged with the brand uniquely.
Gucci
One of the first luxury brands to use AR was Gucci in 2019, by adding an AR feature to its app to let users ‘try on’ sneakers, giving their customers a visual representation of how the product will look in real life, this increases customer satisfaction and decreases product returns. Gucci also partnered with Snapchat to offer a virtual trying-on experience, opening a new channel for driving sales with an AR tool, by that introducing ‘digital fashion’ to the world.
Image source: VentureBeat
IKEA also uses Augmented Reality in marketing
They created the IKEA AR app that lets customers see how potential furniture would look in their homes before making the purchase. It allows customers to get a feel of how their rooms would look like after the addition of the furniture. This feature boosted IKEA’s online and mobile sales and decreased returns of furniture. The app is very easy to use you just point your device to any spot in a room, then drag and drop the selected product onto the space and you’ll get to see it in front of you!
Timberland
Timberland also used AR, it was one of the first brands to bring virtual fitting rooms, the ‘magic mirror’, an AR-powered mirror that virtually ‘dresses’ customers from any collection. So basically, consumers get to see how they look like in the clothes without physically putting them and without taking their own clothes off. Which is convenient and time saving. They implemented the project in collaboration with Lemon & Orange.
This phenomenon not only made better connections with current customers but also attracted new customers to the brand to try the “New Mirror”. It stopped people and made them take a look at what the brand has in store. The images taken on the Magic Mirror could also be shared on all social media platforms. That made Timberland gain buzz on social media as well!
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