Blog
Augmenting the retail customer experience
Taras Kovalchuk, XR practice leader at SoftServe, explains why as retailers seek the means to become truly omnichannel, AR can enhance the customer experience both online and in a brick-and-mortar store.
November 20, 2019
By Taras Kovalchuk, XR practice leader, SoftServe
Consumers live in an on-demand world with highly accessible and increasingly transparent product and brand information. It is imperative for retailers to create customer interactions that not only surprise and delight, but also facilitate the shopper's journey. Today, companies have the opportunity to meet the needs of the more informed and discerning customer with highly engaging experiences using immersive technology.
The adoption rate and widening application of augmented reality, allows retailers to offer new dimensionality to the product and shopping experience, while providing real-time information to improve customer value, increase engagement, and drive sales conversions.
AR allows digital content to be overlaid onto the consumer's surrounding environment—merging both the physical and digital worlds. As retailers seek the means to become truly omnichannel, AR can enhance the customer experience both online and in a brick-and-mortar store.
Adopting a new reality
Smartphone and tablet usage in retail commerce is on the rise, contributing to the adoption of emerging technologies. In a recent survey, nearly 57% of smartphone and tablet owners use mobile retail applications to gather additional product information, while 24% use mobile grocery apps. It's estimated that by 2020, smartphone retail mobile commerce (mCommerce) will total $268.2 billion, an estimated 31.5% growth in 2019.
The future of mobile in retail, however, lies with the integration, evolution, and adoption of AR. The dramatic increase in public awareness for AR coincided with the launch of Pokémon GO in 2016. The game, which placed digital objects in the physical world for users to find, has currently generated more than 800 million downloads and $2 billion in revenue. Retailers have leveraged this AR wave to capture customer attention and to secure interaction by providing a quick, fluid shopping experience and delivering interactive customer information.
Beyond games
Retailers and big box brands like Walmart are investing in AR gamification for vendor product promotion. Gamification allows retailers to use immersive advertising to engage customers in and outside of the store — especially around the holidays, movie or product launches — and other large-scale promotions. In-store gamification also enables brand collaboration between shop and vendor, offering a way to mutually increase revenues, while simultaneously entertaining and informing customers about relevant products and promotions.
During the December 2018 holiday season, Walmart launched a mobile AR app in collaboration with multiple brands including Kellogg's, Clorox, M&Ms, Pepsi, and 3M. Customers using the app could scan featured brand QR codes to interact with brand mascots and engage in mini-games, 3D animations, and face filters. The app let Walmart entertain shoppers who might otherwise be bored or burdened by the in-store experience, while increasing brand and product awareness.
Beyond gamification, retailers are using AR to provide additional product information to consumers both in-home and in-store. Companies like Sephora and L'Oreal use AR to enhance the digital experience, allowing users to virtually “try on” beauty products. Target, Anthropologie, and Ikea allow users to overlay furniture within their home. Using one of the company-specific apps, users can select from a list of furniture products, see a digital representation on a tablet or mobile phone, and “place” the item where desired in the customer's physical environment. Anthropologie takes the immersive experience a step further, giving shoppers the ability to personalize and customize furniture shapes, fabrics, and colors.
Digitally immersive in-home experiences help consumers at the beginning or during the exploration phase of their shopper journey. In a survey conducted by KPMG, more than half of the participants denoted the primary reason for shopping in-store versus online is to see, touch, and experience products prior to purchasing. By adding a greater degree of tangibility to the digital experience, AR helps retailers mitigate the perceived risk from items customers usually prefer to experience in person.
Proceed to the highlighted route
AR can also bring the convenience of digital closer to the in-store experience.
According to Statista, the average U.S. household visits brick-and-mortar grocery stores 1.6 times a week, and 61% of shoppers create a shopping list beforehand. Even with lists created to expedite shopping efficiency, the time spent in-store averages over 40 minutes, which can be a cumbersome task for customers with near-instant gratification expectations.
AR adds efficiency to the in-store shopping experience with indoor navigation using digitally overlaid routes. By directing customers along a guided path that coincides with their predetermined shopping list, companies can help consumers save time locating items and accelerate checkout while creating a valuable customer experience.
For example, Lowe's Companies Inc., a home improvement chain with warehouse-like stores that each span an average of 112,000 feet, created an indoor navigation solution. Lowe's Vision Navigation makes it easy and efficient for customers to locate items from a predetermined shopping list by guiding them through the store via AR-placed digital arrows. The augmented reality app helps customers navigate the large locations and find items faster.
Customers begin by adding items to a virtual shopping cart at the start of their in-store journey. Once all items are selected, the user can click a ‘begin navigation' button and overlaid arrows begin to direct the user to the listed items. The app accommodates the user's starting location, and through machine learning and computer vision algorithms, determines the shortest path to each item. Like a standard GPS, the path will recalculate if a user veers from the original route.
AR-driven navigational paths can be extremely beneficial for large warehouse-like stores, especially to help customers who are less familiar with a particular brand or location. Retailers can get started with navigational tools and solutions using Apple's ARKit or Google's ARCore software development kits.
Whether seeking to invest in innovations today or in the future, companies can lay the groundwork necessary for the adoption and implementation of AR applications.
Paving the path
Advanced technologies, like AR, require accessible and organized data to properly function. A proper data infrastructure is business-imperative for innovation. Data strategy and governance must be implemented to ensure data is properly managed and available. Having an efficient cloud strategy allows for scaling technologies and data accessibility.
By merging the digital and physical worlds with AR, retailers can create valuable customer experiences, driving sales and securing loyal and engaged customers.
