As a retailer, are you ready to take control and modernize the way you sell and market your goods? If so, the power of AR and VR is in your hands.
Augmented and virtual reality are not just trends; they are transforming the retail sector, revolutionizing how businesses sell and customers purchase goods and services.
The increasingly immersive and engaging 3D experiences are making shopping more educational, conscious, and enjoyable than ever before. Let’s quickly review the fundamentals before discussing the applications and advantages of AR and VR in the retail sector.
The Issue with Conventional Retail Marketing
Supply and demand for goods were growing along with AR/VR development. Therefore, older marketing strategies needed to be updated. Larger retail spaces attracted more customers, and the infrastructure improved. The following points illustrate the general difficulties:
- Not Enough Items
One persistent issue with traditional retail establishments is that you only know when an item will be out of stock once you visit. This problem endures irrespective of external conditions, rendering it an ongoing concern for enterprises managing restricted resources and possible stockpiling.
- Minimal Customisation
Delivering customized messaging based on unique consumer behaviors and preferences is one of organizations’ most significant problems in traditional retail marketing. Traditional retail marketing approaches’ inability to provide the degree of personalization that contemporary consumers demand impacts the efficacy of communications.
Advantages of AR/VR Marketing
- Improved Client Satisfaction
In retail, AR developers have improved the whole consumer/shopper experience. Through engaging and dynamic product demonstrations and manuals, buyers can make educated decisions that were previously unattainable.
Additionally, clients can place the product before purchasing, thanks to the virtual tours. Thanks to the augmented reality features, they may explore many options and try on clothing or accessories without putting in the physical effort of trying them on.
- More Brand Recognition
In retail settings, VR and AR development improve brand recognition and image. For instance, to promote its fall/winter 2021 collection, the international luxury fashion company Balenciaga developed and published the VR video game ‘Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow.’ The game’s official website was made accessible.
Users may traverse a futuristic environment and complete several easy missions by making an avatar dressed in the newest Balenciaga styles. Following the game, some players posted their thoughts on social media, which increased exposure for Balenciaga’s brand.
These technologies build a devoted customer following and raise brand awareness. Better-informed customers visit the business more frequently and feel more confident about their purchases. Thanks to AR and VR in the retail sector, customers now have a more sophisticated and informed buying experience overall.
- Improved Representation of the Product
Virtual reality and augmented reality have enabled product visualization in the retail sector. Before making a significant financial commitment, customers may explore things,
- try on clothing and accessories,
- picture furniture in their homes,
- and see how various beauty products appear on them.
- Enhanced Interaction and Personalization
Retailers can adopt experience and personalized and targeted marketing with AR and VR. By using 3D graphics-rich content, retailers can provide their customers with a more immersive and enjoyable experience.
Furthermore, buyers can shop more and personalize their purchases with AR tools. This increases the user’s likelihood of purchasing from the store and gives them a distinctive and tailored shopping experience. It gives your clients a genuine reason to come back repeatedly and even makes them feel unique.
For instance, customers can visit actual BMW shops and use their smart devices, such as phones or tablets, to customize cars with various colors or styles. As an alternative, consumers can wear virtual reality goggles to simulate driving the vehicles, enabling them to make a better-informed choice.
Customers also tend to interact, involve, and interact more with the retail stores when they can navigate in-store using augmented reality (AR) and virtual tours from the ease of their homes.
- Reduced Rate of Returns
As consumer satisfaction rises, a decrease in the rate of returns is inevitable. When AR and VR are used in retail, customers purchase well-considered and comprehended goods. When the buying process is more personalized, customers are happier with the items they have chosen for themselves and are more likely to have a pleasant overall experience.
For instance, Apple made its physical retail shops available to customers during the pandemic. The shopfronts were brought home via augmented reality technology to highlight their products. Customers could use AR Quick Look for iMac or new iPhone models. This gave customers a sense of how the things would appear in their hands, in a real location, or in an actual setting.
This helped the customers proceed with their purchase by giving them additional confidence in the goods and their selections. As a result, there were sure to be fewer returns and unhappiness. Thus, implementing AR and VR in retail increases consumer knowledge of products, reduces purchase dissatisfaction, and consequently reduces the number of returns.
Consequently, decreasing expenses linked to returns helps merchants make financial gains. Additionally, the experience merchants provide through AR and VR becomes distinct and sets them apart from their rivals.
- Makes New Marketing Strategies Possible
Digital marketers can use entertaining, user-friendly, and intuitive retail content created using AR and VR. The two new technologies give the advertisements more originality and movement, which increases their engagement value, which was not achievable with traditional ads. Increased customer involvement is anticipated with more dynamic and stimulating displays or digital ads.
Retail Use Cases for AR and VR
AR and VR are used in retail to improve customer experience and boost sales. Retailers’ conventional selling techniques prevent customers from completely understanding the merchandise.
Nonetheless, integrating AR and VR technologies has enabled businesses to provide customers with an immersive experience, improving engagement and increasing sales. The multinational sports footwear and apparel company Nike uses AR and VR technologies to enhance customers’ shopping experiences in its physical stores.
Therefore, customers can scan objects like clothes, accessories, or shoes to obtain product details. To fully comprehend how and where products are made, they can venture into a virtual reality environment and experience one or more of the numerous or varied processes in the brand’s supply chain.
The most well-known and sought-after brand shops or showrooms now feature AR and VR in e-commerce and retail.
Conclusion
Using AR and VR has become more feasible for the typical shop as the cost of these technologies keeps decreasing, and the software that supports them has improved. Since augmented reality technology is not restricted to the tiny universes involved in the metaverse, it is the ideal place to start.
