Real world meets virtual world
Retailers turn to augmented reality to help connect with customers amid pandemic
OAKLAND, Calif. — WhenEdenChen wants to go sneaker shopping, he takes out his smartphone and points the camera at his feet. Shoes materialize. He turns his feet from side to side. How does the shoe look on his foot? How does the top of the sneaker meet the cuff of his pants leg?
“It’s one thing when a shoe looks great on display,” Chen said. “When it’s on your foot, it’s just different.”
Chen, who has founded startups focused on gaming and augmented reality, is one of a growing number of consumers who, stuck at home because of the pandemic, are shopping in augmented reality.
The technology was made ubiquitous by social media platform Snapchat, which used it to transform users’ faces into anime illustrations and add dancing hot dogs to their videos. But as the pandemic continues, retailers are increasingly relying on augmented reality to help customers try on products. It displays goods as a filter on what they see on their phones, stitching shoes onto customers’ feet, adding makeup to their faces and dropping furniture into their apartments.
The process isn’t foolproof, Chen said. Sometimes the shoes will flicker as the artificial intelligence powering them struggles to pinpoint where they ought to be. Other times, the shoes will layer unnaturally with pants legs, covering them up rather than vanishing underneath them.
But it’s better than not trying them on at all. Traditional retailers, struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic, are hoping augmented reality can help them recreate the real-world shopping experience in the virtual world. Retailers’ overall Black Friday sales fell 20% from last year, according to a Morgan Stanley estimate, but online spending that day increased 21.6%, according to Adobe Analytics.
Retailers’ demand for augmented reality has led many of them to Snap, the parent company of
Snapchat, which has raced to add shopping experiences to its array of filters. The company began adding shopping filters in June and now offers augmented reality try-on experiences for luxury brands like Gucci and Dior, and makeup tutorials from cosmetics manufacturer Too Faced. This month, Snap teamed up with Perfect, a company that creates makeup try-on experiences, to add more beauty filters and shopping experiences to Snapchat.
“The pandemic accelerated a lot of conversations that we were already having,” said Carolina Arguelles Navas, product strategy lead for augmented reality at Snap.
Traditional retailers like HomeDepot and internet giants like Amazon have experimented with
the technology as well, using augmented reality filters for displaying furniture in consumers’ homes.
Some companies that focus on augmented reality have created apps solely for trying things on, like Wanna Kicks, for sneakers. Others, like Marxent, have worked with retailers to help build augmented reality experiences focused on their products. In June, Snap also released a technical library of tools to help developers recognize and classify objects to create augmented reality filters for Snapchat.
The shopping filters have led to a flurry of flexing, or showing off, as users have rushed to share images of themselves “wearing” Gucci and other brands.