2021 is definitely the year when luxury brands have taken their stores to their customers! With augmented reality in luxury retail, brands from Chanel to Dior have curated immersive customer experiences to connect with customers.
Presently with COVID19, AR-integrated luxury shopping is more essential than innovative. And therefore, the real question is about the place of augmented reality in luxury retail in a post-COVID19 world.
How Does Augmented Reality Shopping Work?
Augmented Reality shopping is the use of digital technology to improve shopping experiences, making them genuine, engaging, and emotive.
As Geoffrey Perez, the Head of Luxury at Snapchat puts it – “Luxury brands build and extend a legacy. To do this, they need to be where their audience is, and if they don’t speak to them right away, they run the risk of losing them permanently. Considering that visual communication is at the heart of ‘Snapchat’s Generation,’ they need to talk to them now.”
How Top Brands Embed AR Into Customer Experiences?
Furthermore, as Greenlight Insights and Forbes note – “…augmented reality devices and the content will hit a massive $36.4 billion in 2023…That’s 11 times higher than the estimated $3.4 billion in revenue in 2019.”
Makes it more important than ever to understand the most popular AR-based strategies being used and which luxury brands are using them to disrupt the industry:
Augmented Reality Filters
Research has shown that luxury brands that use AR can keep their customers engaged for an average of 75 seconds, as compared to the regular engagement time of 2.5 seconds.
Dior
Tapping into this statistic, Dior launched a series of Snapchat and Facebook filters that allowed users to try on over-the-shoulder accessories including hats, sunglasses, and more.
Ray-ban
Ray-ban launched an AR filter that allowed users to try on Ray-ban sunglasses as well as interact with them in a fun and quirky way. Launched around Christmas, the filter placed reindeer horns on people’s heads and let them add funky sound effects and take videos with the same.
Prada
Prada took a different take on AR by creating a filter that is not related to its product range per se, but allowed users to play a personality game and understand their personality traits with the alphabets – ‘P’, ‘R’, ‘A’, ‘D’, ‘A’.
Augmented Reality Mirrors
Augmented reality mirrors are a notch-up version of AR-integrated shopping. They let users try on outfits, find their best fit, and analyze the outfit from multiple angles.
Also known as magic mirrors, here are some of the top brands that are making use of magic mirrors to help customers discover their personal style:
L’Oreal’s Style My Hair
In partnership with ModiFace, L’Oreal released an application called “Style My Hair”. Helping customers try on different hair colors on live video. The application, powered by an AR-based mirror can apply the color to one’s hair strand by strand.
Sephora
A global beauty favorite – Sephora, did not stay behind in the AR game. Sephora created an AR mirror to allow users to try on their products from lipsticks to eyeshadows!
Augmented Reality Trial Rooms
Another common use case for immersive AR experiences within the luxury fashion industry includes virtual try-on. Brands who have successfully integrated this include:
Baume
The famous Swiss luxury watch brand – Baume partnered with Hapticmedia to provide customers with 3D product presentations for their watches. This option allows users to customize and curate unique watch designs as well as virtually try watches on their wrists.
Michael Kors
Michael Kors allows its users to try on their sunglasses virtually, through Facebook. Customers can simply try glasses on their faces and then make purchases directly from Facebook.
Augmented Reality Fashion Shows
Fashion shows and runways have always been resource-heavy and financially consuming. And with the pandemic setting, the runaway experience has completed become non-democratic owing to social distancing norms and accessibility.
But with AR stepping in, fashion shows can now be hosted with virtual models. And it doesn’t stop there, because these virtual fashion shows and runaways can be experienced by viewers in the comfort of their own living rooms.
If your brand has not already integrated AR shopping experience for its customers, shoot us an email or reach out to us for more information and a free consultation.