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Augmented reality is the future of retail

Augmented reality still seems the stuff of science fiction. After all, in the scale of completely real reality and Star Trek holodeck-style virtual reality, augmented reality sits somewhere in the middle. With augmented reality you are in the real world, interacting with virtual things that you see layered over the real world.

Today, augmented is pretty simple. You don’t see virtual objects in the real world so much as you see virtual objects on a screen between you and the real world. For example, Google Glass is augmented reality. You see the real world, and the device layers information over what you see via the little screen in front of you. Similarly, there are apps that use your mobile’s GPS and camera to layer information about the area you’re in over the things you point your phone at.

Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a real impact, however. Even today, augmented reality is changing the way consumers shop. It is drawing people to shops and getting them to talk about it on social media. It lets people try a variety of products before they buy them. It can also keep people engaging with the brand, before, during and after purchase.

Given augmented reality can do all of these things, it is hardly surprising that commentators are calling it the future of retail.

Augmented reality draws people to stores and gets them to talk about it.

Google Glass and the mobile apps can layer information about shops and markets on the screen. They show reviews, social media activities, opening hours, directions and more to users. They then allow the user to share their location via social media and invite others to meet them in the shop. They can much more than that of course, but from a retail perspective, these devices give users access to information that encourages them first to go to the shops and then to tell their friends where they are and what they are doing.

From a retailer’s perspective, Google Glass and augmented reality apps are marketing, social media outreach and advertising, all rolled into one. It helps consumers find the shops they need to go to, the ones they didn’t know they needed and the ones near them where they can kill time browsing things they like. That means in the future, traditional advertising and marketing models may be obsolete, as augmented reality – which gets its information from the internet – will connect consumers with the shops they want, exactly when they want them. Retailers will need only to have a strong online presence and then wait for individuals to search for them.

Augmented reality lets people try before they buy.

Augmented reality takes “try before you buy” to the next level. There is no need to take a product home. There is no need to charge a credit or debit card and get a full refund if returned in 30 days. There is no need to have an employee clean out a changing room, steam the wrinkles out of the items and restock them. All consumers have to do is download an app or interact with a screen to see how things look. For example, Bathrooms.com has released an augmented reality app that allows its UK consumers to see what bathroom products will look like in their own homes. The app scales the products, so the picture consumers get in their head is as accurate as possible. Similarly, augmented reality advertising agency Holition has done several campaigns where people can try on various products. They set up a webcam and a screen so people could try on jewellery from their many high-end jewellery clients or get a virtual makeover, all without actually touching any real products.

A future where consumers can try virtual products would be a retailer’s dream come true. They would no longer have to cost out demo products, which would save them thousands of pounds a month. They wouldn’t have to put out clothes that customers try on and leave in crumpled heaps. If the technology becomes sufficiently advanced, consumers would be able to smell, feel and hear the products as if they were real, so stock that was manufactured just so people could try it out would be a thing of the past.

Augmented reality engages people before, during and after purchasing.

Augmented reality changes how people interact with brands. Topshop has an augmented reality app that works with its printed magazine. Users hover their mobiles over images to get additional videos, to get be able to look at the clothes from any angle, and to buy items, all with a swipe of the finger. Augmented reality and mobile marketing agency Goldrun created an app for Esquire magazine to get people to go to a specific store for the bonus material. Readers downloaded the app, and then went to the magazine section of US bookstore chain Barnes and Noble. When they were in the magazine section and had activated the app, they could hold up their phones and see an image of model Brooklyn Decker, looking like she was posing for a photograph in front of the users. They could then take photos with her in them, making it look like she was there with them and their friends. They could also share the images on their social media profiles.

Both of those apps are pretty soft on the sales pitches, but they do encourage users to engage with the brands in unique and interesting ways, whether they are buying something or not. With the Topshop app, consumers get more content that reinforces the Topshop brand image, and that encourages them to pick up all the magazines, keep them and look at them again and again. The Esquire app got people to go to the very spot they could pick up the magazine and gave them the content, without actually requiring them to buy anything. Of course, once they were there and had the magazine on their minds, they were much more likely to purchase.

In the future, it is much more likely that brands will rely on this sort of engagement to draw customers into their stores, whether they are virtual shops or bricks and mortar locations. After all, it is generally accepted that traditional hard-sell advertising is becoming less effective, as consumers are getting better at filtering out heavy-handed messages from advertisers. Retailers will always need to be able to get consumers’ attention, however, and providing fun, interactive augmented reality apps will be key to this.

Today, augmented reality is making some big changes to the retail industry. Still, it’s not going as far as it can. Augmented reality experts want to develop the technology so that many people to see the same virtual objects from various points of view, essentially creating 3D holograms that you can feel, smell and manipulate like real objects. That technology will push retail in even more amazing, unimaginable directions, but in the meantime, we’ll have to be content with our virtual makeovers, digital shopping guides and electronic magazines transforming retail as we know it.

You can read more about augmented reality on the Bathrooms.com Inspiration blog and find out about Ian via his profile.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ian Monk .