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How To: Choosing the right AR, VR, 3D for retail

Ben Houston, CTO of ThreeKit, provides an overview of how each technology can be applied to an e-commerce site to offer the biggest impact for retailers.

Photo by istock.com

September 30, 2019

By Ben Houston, CTO of ThreeKit

The adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is ancient, but its application is more relevant than ever to e-commerce retailers: high-quality product images can increase conversions and decrease returns in nearly every vertical.

Luckily, software now makes it possible to create visual content more easily and inexpensively than ever. And that content is no longer limited to static images: today's retailers can offer shoppers augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and 3D experiences to help customers understand their offerings move through the purchasing process.

AR for retail: Offer product previews in context

The average e-commerce retailer loses about 75% of potential sales to cart abandonment, and main reason customers abandon carts is that the retailer doesn't offer a satisfactory return policy.

Offering AR on your website can help you tackle this issue by showing customers exactly how your products will look in their intended context. This gives customers the peace of mind that your product will work as intended and therefore that they won't need to return it once it arrives.

So what might AR look like in this context?

A furniture retailer might let customers use the camera function of a smartphone or tablet to superimpose an image of a sofa on an image of their living room. A paint retailer could offer something similar.

AR solutions tend to be best for retailers selling large or expensive items for which returns are unwieldy, or any time a buyer would want to experience a product before committing to a purchase. By combining images of the real world with digital renderings, AR gives shoppers a sense of products' size, scale, and detail so they can make confident buying decisions.

VR for retail: Offer tours from the couch

Virtual reality lets shoppers have a completely immersive virtual experience, usually facilitated by a headset of some kind. While some retailers (like Ikea and The North Face) have offered VR experiences in stores, what we've found is that shoppers tend to be less comfortable with VR in public places and more comfortable at home.

This makes sense: venturing into VR means abandoning your ability to see the world around you. Most people are more comfortable doing that at home.

Retailers can tap into the power of VR by offering virtual tours of their spaces to answer common questions or ease anxieties. For example:

•    Grocers could provide a tour of the gluten-free section of their store or even the factories where gluten-free foods are produced. This would eliminate worry about contamination for those with allergies and other dietary restrictions.
•    Mass retailers could offer location-specific tours targeted at parents hoping to skip the toy or candy aisle and avoid a meltdown.
•    Gyms could provide potential members a chance to view the facility without interrupting the sweaty workouts of existing members. This also has the benefit of showcasing the facility in top shape rather than as it looks at its busiest.

Granted, these experiences require shoppers to have VR headsets. While adoption is still modest overall, equipment improvements are enticing more and more consumers to buy, meaning VR tours will likely be more impactful in the near future.

3D renderings: Sell Without a prototype

When it comes to using 3D for product visuals, there are actually two distinct strategies: 3D product renderings used to produce photorealistic two-dimensional images and interactive 3D.

The former involves using software to create hyper-realistic 2D images from CADs or other digital designs. This process is extremely cost effective compared to traditional photography, in part because, after initial image creation, it lets retailers adjust and manipulate images as needed.

Creating images from 3D renderings can be particularly useful when:

•    A product or prototype hasn't yet been manufactured but you want to start taking orders.
•    You have a limited budget for photography (e.g., if you wanted photos of your product in a faraway location, 3D renderings could make that happen without the cost of a photo shoot on location).
•    You have a large catalog of items.
•    Your catalog is updated often.
•    You want to experiment with various backgrounds.
•    You want 360-degree images.

Crucially, consumers can't tell the difference between images created from renderings and “real” photographs. So for a fraction of the cost of traditional photography, you can results of similar or better quality.

Interactive 3D: Quell all doubts

The second application for 3D is creating fully interactive 3D visuals on your site that shoppers can manipulate, animate, or configure to fit their needs. This technology tends to work best for:

•    Expensive or high-end items that shoppers want to see from every angle before purchasing.
•    Items with intricate detail, including components for machines.
•    Items that are frequently returned (the ability to see something from all angles prevents surprises and can reduce returns).
•    Technical items with complex interiors that can be illustrated with virtualized breakdowns (like a football helmet with extra safety features).

As shoppers manipulate interactive 3D visuals on handheld devices, they enjoy an intimacy similar to what they'd experience in a brick-and-mortar store, which can help them gain confidence in what they're buying.

Choose digital for better ROI

Regardless of which digital visual components make the most sense for your e-commerce website, choosing digital visualizations of products will lead to more conversions and fewer returns — for less of an upfront investment than traditional photography. Add that to the ability to customize visuals on the fly, and digital image creation has a clear edge over its analog competitors.