The concept of augmented reality (AR) technology may seem new, but it’s not a new technology by any means.
The first AR experience was created in 1957 after cinematographer Morton Heilig developed a bizarre invention — the Sensorama — to blend sound, visuals, vibration, and scent into one, complete experience.
Thankfully, despite AR’s strange beginning, there have been multiple attempts to develop modern AR solutions, as well as it's more advanced cousin virtual reality, into something practical and tangible.
So, where is AR technology today?
Augmented reality has changed how we shop, completely redefining the eCommerce experience. But how did we get here? What was it that caused AR technology to evolve from oversized electronics and bizarre scent booths into a powerful platform for customers and merchants alike?
To answer that, we're going to need to go back a few years to when augmented reality first started making waves in online shopping.
For decades, augmented reality was viewed as little more than a novelty. Some early adopters recognized the technology's commercial potential, certainly. In 2008, for instance, automaker BMW became one of the first companies in the world to use AR in its marketing.
Yet for every forward-thinking project like BMW's print ads, there were failures like the ill-fated Google Glass, released in 2013 and still regarded as one of the biggest product failures of all time.
For a time, it seemed as though blunders like that would forevermore be the face of augmented reality. People, after all, tend to have remarkably long memories when it comes to failures. Success, not so much.
Then in 2016, mobile developer Niantic released Pokémon GO.
You'd be hard pressed to find someone that doesn't remember the excitement and enthusiasm surrounding Pokémon GO in the years immediately following its release. By 2017, the game had 65 million monthly players, and had been downloaded approximately 750 million times.
The media was filled with stories about the game. How it functionally took over the world, creating a sense of unity and community not seen in decades. How, in the wake of the game's release, Nintendo's stock nearly doubled. And, perhaps most interestingly, how it inspired its own cottage industry.
Businesses such as restaurants and cafes endeavored to be added to the app as gyms or pokestops in the hopes of attracting more customers. Map tools, chat apps, and branded smart devices and chargers began selling like wildfire. As of 2021, the game has made a total of $5 billion since release.
If anyone was looking for proof that augmented reality was commercially and financially viable, Pokémon GO was it. Yet even as Niantic's software drew attention from countless businesses, its potential in the eCommerce sector remained unexplored for most. What was it, then, that truly tipped the scales and created a surge of interest in digital retail AR for consumers and merchants alike?
You probably already know the answer. The same thing that has, for the past two years, redefined how we live, work, and exist. COVID-19.
In just three months, eCommerce retailers all but replaced physical channels — something which analyst McKinsey notes is equivalent to a full decade of market growth. At the same time, in a 2021 survey by Deloitte and Snap, more than half of people indicated that augmented reality has become more important to them since the pandemic began. These factors together effectively created a perfect storm.
As people worked from home and socially isolated during lockdown, many sought out retailers capable of providing them with at least an approximation of an in-store experience. Though there was no substitute for examining a product with their own hands, they at least wanted something more than static product photos. Even in 2019, before the pandemic struck, 71% of people admitted that they would shop more often with a retailer that offered AR.
This has only been amplified during the pandemic, with some retailers seeing as much as a 200% increase in sales after incorporating AR.
For Tangiblee, these facts and figures do not come as any great surprise. Since progressing through seed accelerator TechStar in 2014, we have sought to redefine how both retailers sell and how customers shop. Over the years, we've watched eCommerce evolve from a burgeoning market into one of the most important industries in the world.
And we’re excited to play a pivotal role in that evolution.
Today, we're partnered with some of the top online retailers, empowering them with a scalable, adaptable, and effective customer experience platform designed for customer engagement and immersion.
Intuitive and resource-light, our platform processes 5,000 SKUs a day. And through our advanced technology, we offer everything from customizable lifestyle content, live product comparisons, and a “virtual try-on” feature to create truly personalized experiences.
Augmented reality has come a very long way from its humble origins, particularly with the boost in popularity it gained from the pandemic.
Are you looking for a powerful AR solution to enhance your shopping experience?
Book a demo and see how Tangiblee can become your conversion-boosting differentiator.
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In the ever-evolving landscape of e-commerce, standing out from the crowd and engaging customers in meaningful ways is the name of the game. Shoppers no longer seek just products; they crave experiences that mimic those of traditional brick-and-mortar shopping.
E-commerce has revolutionized the way we shop, offering convenience and unprecedented choice at our fingertips. Yet, online and mobile purchasing often falls short in delivering the same experiences as in-person shopping. Immersive shopping experiences, which may include augmented reality (AR), 3D, lifestyle imagery, and more, bridge this gap by recreating the feeling of trying on, comparing, and experiencing products virtually.
These experiences aren't just for looks (i.e. branding); they are essential for e-commerce success. Research has consistently shown that immersive shopping experiences lead to higher customer engagement, reduced cart abandonment rates, and increased sales. Customers who can interact with products in a digital environment are more likely to make confident purchase decisions.
For retailers, optimizing the consumer purchase journey on their website is an attractive alternative to spending money on advertising. As our client Jewlr says, “The results speak for themselves. We were very pleased with the increase in both conversion rate and RPV.
However, creating immersive shopping experiences presents its own set of challenges. Retailers must find efficient and scalable ways to provide these experiences for their entire product catalog.
Tangiblee has become the market leader in providing immersive shopping experiences to retailers worldwide. Our approach is centered around delivering a seamless, interactive, and scalable experience to customers.
One of the standout features of Tangiblee is its ability to process a staggering 5000 SKUs daily. This means that retailers can offer immersive experiences for their entire product range, no matter how vast.
Retailers can seamlessly integrate Tangiblee into their websites with just a single line of code. This makes it easy for brands of all sizes to adopt the platform without complex technical overhauls.
Tangiblee extracts product details and imagery directly from the retailer's catalog. This enables Tangiblee to equip a retailer’s catalog with no additional photoshoots.
Tangiblee's team then works closely with retailers to configure the user experience based on best practices and client feedback. This customization ensures that the immersive experience aligns perfectly with the brand's identity. Before going live, each SKU undergoes a rigorous quality assurance and testing process. This guarantees that customers receive a flawless and engaging experience every time they interact with a product.
“It was honestly one of the easiest integrations we’ve ever gone through…” says Back (co-founder, Apt2B).
The advantages of adopting Tangiblee's solution are numerous:
1. Cost Savings: Tangiblee eliminates the need for expensive in-house web and software development, 3D model creation, and photoshoots, reducing operational costs.
2. Reduced Maintenance: With Tangiblee handling the technology development, integration support, and ongoing maintenance, retailers can focus on their core business, knowing that their immersive shopping experience is in expert hands.
Immersive shopping, including a full suite of extended reality (XR) experiences, are not just a luxury but a necessity in the competitive world of e-commerce. Tangiblee has emerged as a market leader, offering a scalable, user-centric, and low maintenance solution for retailers seeking to provide these experiences to their customers. By bridging the gap between online and in-person shopping, Tangiblee is helping brands not only survive but thrive in the digital age.
It's time to explore what Tangiblee can do for your e-commerce needs. Schedule a demo with our skilled team today.
The world of retail has gone digital, and any organization that can't keep up risks being left behind. Today's shoppers demand an interactive online experience. You cannot provide them with that if your online store is entirely static.
Product photos and descriptions, while still extremely important, don't paint a complete picture of what it's like to actually use a product. They leave far too much up to the imagination, which ultimately damages customer confidence. To name just a few examples, without interactivity, your store cannot fully convey:
Those details are all left entirely up to the shopper's imagination — such that they might as well simply go to a brick-and-mortar store instead.
Remember as well that all this is happening against a backdrop of changing consumer expectations. Per a recent Salesforce report, the experience provided by a company is just as important as its products or services for nearly 90 percent of shoppers. Those same people have largely adopted a digital-first mindset, with more than half preferring to engage through digital channels and purchase online.
Because of this, embracing innovation in retail is no longer about gaining a competitive advantage, but a matter of survival. Your store must not only be interactive, but also immersive, highly personalized and customer-centric. Should you fail to fulfill these expectations, most of your shoppers will very likely seek out a competitor that does.
But what exactly does it look like when a retailer aces interactivity? How can you tell if your own brand is doing digital retail the right way? We'll start by previewing a few retailers who've worked with Tangiblee to excel in interactive experiences — then, once you know what that involves, we'll walk you through how you can follow in their footsteps.
A high-end jewelry retailer with over 40 years of expertise, Noemie has always maintained a strong online presence. The company, which sells rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings, generates the majority of its revenue via its online store. It's always prided itself on the aesthetics of its e-commerce site, which it maintains alongside three brick and mortar locations — two in New York and one in Aspen.
Noemie approached Tangiblee with the goal of elevating its shopping experience while maintaining the characteristics that made it unique as a brand. We worked with the retailer to implement several interactive features and technologies:
These features allowed Noemie to greatly improve both customer engagement and revenue, with a 118.7 percent increased conversion rate and 125.1 percent increased revenue per visitor.
Apt2B is an online furniture retailer established with a singular vision — to provide an e-commerce experience that reflects the need of modern, tech-savvy shoppers. Although it began as a small bootstrapped company, it's since become an internationally-recognized brand, with a product catalog consisting of over 3000 furniture and home decor SKUs. The one constant between then and now is that the brand relies heavily on technology integration partners in providing and maintaining a high-end customer experience.
It was only natural, then, that Apt2B sought out Tangiblee. The company's founders recognized that buyer confidence was a significant issue for their line of business. They needed better, more immersive visualization.
With that in mind, Apt2B deployed the following technologies:
As a result of its efforts, the furniture retailer enjoyed a sevenfold increase in conversion rate and 11.8 percent increased average order value.
Abbreviated as WGACA, What Goes Around Come Around is a designer fashion brand that sells both vintage and pre-owned luxury items. WGACA's custom collection of high-end apparel, accessories and bags come from some of the biggest names in luxury fashion, including Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel and Hermes. Originally established in 1993, the company currently operates two flagship brick-and-mortar outlets, one in Soho and the other in Beverly Hills.
It was only recently that, seeking to evolve alongside the retail sector, WGACA sought to elevate its online shopping experience. The brand saw the writing on the wall, and recognized that shoppers wanted more interactivity. It also knew that maintaining traditional product imagery would be an incredibly challenging undertaking given how frequently its inventory changes — never mind the fact that its product catalog spans over 14,000 SKUs.
With that in mind, WGACA connected with Tangiblee to deploy:
This new level of interactivity and immersion increased WGACA's revenue per visitor by 221 percent and its conversion rate by 227 percent for its online store.
Victorinox is a world-renowned retailer of Swiss Army Knives, cutlery knives, travel gear and watches. With a history spanning over 130 years, the brand established a reputation for quality well before digital retail was even a thing. It could have easily continued focusing on brick-and-mortar retail and ignored the online space altogether — but instead, it set out to provide a peerless online shopping experience.
That meant finding a way to visually communicate product sizes to shoppers, which the company achieved by deploying the following technologies:
Deploying these technologies increased Victorinox's conversion rate by an average of 106.8 percent and its revenue per visitor by 116.9 percent.
We've already discussed how consumer expectations are evolving. People now expect a superior level of service and customization at every stage of their online retail journey, from first contact through to final sale. And they're perfectly willing to leave behind brands that fail to provide them with that.
In a sense, the greatest benefit of online retail is also its greatest weakness. On the one hand, it gives retailers access to an infinitely larger market of potential shoppers than they would reach through physical outlets. On the other, those shoppers also have access to an infinitely larger selection of competitors.
In this hypercompetitive space, it's the companies that do the best job of creating memorable, tailored experiences that excel. They're the retailers that inspire customer loyalty and advocacy, the brands that keep people coming back time and again. Embracing immersive online shopping comes with another significant benefit, as well — it provides you with an opportunity to learn more about your audience than ever.
This is because you can collect information about a shopper at every single touchpoint in their journey. Every time they interact with your brand, you learn more about them and more about what they're looking for. Not only does this allow you to deliver more effective personalization, but you can also leverage analytics to identify bottlenecks and opportunities around your shopping experience.
Last but certainly not least, online retail done right can create an additional revenue stream for brick-and-mortar retailers, one which may potentially serve as an enormous competitive advantage.
Now that we've gone over the benefits of interactive retail and given a few examples of it in action, let's talk about what you need to successfully implement that experience in your own shop.
This is the golden rule of retail in its entirety. In order to deliver an effective interactive experience, you need to understand your target audience. That means not only identifying what they're looking for and why, but also knowing who they are.
Ideally, you want to be able to answer the following questions about your customers:
You wouldn't expect a mechanic to design a website, nor would you demand that a web developer write a novel. Everyone has their own areas of expertise. You may excel at retail, but that doesn't mean you have the technical skills required to build and implement your own immersive retail solutions.
Realistically, even if you did, why go to all the time and effort when you can simply reach out to a technology partner such as Tangiblee? Our immersive shopping and augmented reality solutions are lightweight, intuitive, and trusted by some of the world's top brands. They also require no maintenance and are fully compatible with almost every major e-commerce platform.
Finding the right technology for your website is only the first step. You also need to find a way to integrate that technology so that it enriches your shopping experience without overly taxing your backend. That's easier said than done, unfortunately — many interactive shopping solutions are either incredibly complex to configure or extremely resource intensive.
Tangiblee is neither. We do all the heavy lifting where integration is concerned, collecting existing 2D images and product content via an automated crawl of your catalog, product feeds, and emailed product lists. Not only that, we offer white-glove service from sign-up through to rollout, including ongoing support and maintenance.
The end result? Seamless, stress-free integration, a low total cost of ownership, and a time commitment of less than two hours a month managing our solutions.
Like most digital industries, online retail is data-driven. You need to be able to collect, organize and analyze everything about how customers interact with your store. Not just to identify potential bottlenecks, but also to measure your success.
Tangiblee makes doing both easier than ever, with powerful built-in analytics that allow you to measure everything from traffic to conversions.
Interactive online retail is the future. Of that, there can be no doubt. And augmented reality is only the start — virtual reality has evolved in leaps and bounds over the past several years, to the extent that full immersion might soon be a possibility.
But that's not happening for a while yet. For now, it's enough to know that if you want your company to remain competitive, you need to embrace innovation.
In the face of changing consumer expectations and a shifting industry landscape, the companies that successfully cater to the wants and needs of their shoppers will succeed. The rest will ultimately be left behind.
Are you looking to create an interactive experience for your customers? See how Tangiblee can help. Book a demo today to get started!