5 Products You Didn’t Know You Could Sell Using Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) has been around for decades now, but only recently have the technologies needed to maximize its full potential emerged. Providing customers with interactive and immersive shopping experiences is a top priority among many companies, including:

Architectural and building companies

Businesses also deploy AR strategies to try new consumer-generated ideas, boost efficiency and train their employees. 

The only caveat is determining the worth of AR tech based on the products you sell. It’s understandable to get confused, considering AR in business is still in its nascent stages. 

However, once you determine their viability to your company and the best way to use the technology, your customers can easily interact with your brand and see products in the real world.

Keep reading to see how AR can help your products meet customers’ visual expectations and provide an unmatched customer experience.  

Why is an augmented reality strategy crucial to your business?

Augmented reality technologies process volumes of data and analytics and transform them into images and animations displayed over real-world settings. Some simple AR applications that many people know are Snapchat filters and video games such as Pokémon GO. 

AR technology has advanced significantly, and businesses are increasingly integrating it into their operations. Two key real-life use cases are:

Automotive manufacturers fit AR heads-up displays in their production cars to deliver navigation assistance, collision warning and other safety features in a driver’s line of sight. 

Different manufacturers and factories offer their workers head-mounted displays and AR devices that superimpose product-assembly instructions to enhance efficiency and product quality.

Studies on the impact of AR on consumer behavior and experience indicate that 32% of consumers used AR while shopping in 2020, and the number keeps on growing. AR differentiates your brand and enables customers to engage with your brand in the virtual world, with a high focus on your products’ selling points.  

While every opportunity to engage your audience offers a business opportunity, your engagement channel can make or break the customer’s augmented reality experience. AR allows you to provide high-level customer satisfaction, with 73% of people confirming that mobile AR offers them high satisfaction levels. 

Here’s how AR can improve your business:

AR has significantly changed the way consumers interact with products. Traditionally, customers used knobs, buttons and in-built touchscreen buttons to interact with products. AR applications on mobile devices are gradually rendering physical controls obsolete, allowing users to interact with products through:

Hand gestures

AR wearables, such as headsets, smart glasses and AR glasses

Products you can sell using augmented reality

Online shoppers are often skeptical about purchasing an item online because they can’t see it. They only rely on their imaginations. 

But AR enables B2C and B2B companies to offer their customers a means to get visual simulations of how a product might satisfy their needs, the product’s features and 3D or 2D images in 360-degree views. That makes it easier for them to buy their ideal products. 

If you plan to integrate AR into your eCommerce website, you might be wondering if it will fit your products. Here’s a list of five products you can sell with AR: 

1. Furniture

Augmented reality apps have changed the way consumers buy furniture. The technology allows them to overlay any piece of furniture they want to buy in any room. 

An AR app can measure the space and place the product within the space in real time while maintaining its dimensions. This enables buyers to have a 3D visual of the product in the space where they want to put it. 

One company that maximizes the power of AR in online furniture retail is IKEA. 

Using its IKEA Place app — created using AR technology by Apple — you can point your Android or iPhone camera to the space you want to place the furniture, and the app will configure the space with a hologram. It even offers suggestions on furniture and enhancements that would look and fit perfectly on the spot. 

2. Cosmetic products

If you sell cosmetic and beauty products, AR technology can open a whole world of business opportunities for you. 

Mobile AR users purchasing your products can try out your products digitally, whether it’s lipstick, facial cream or sun care and skin care products. Using facial recognition technology, customers can scan their faces using the app to try out the products and see the difference in a before-and-after display. 

That gives them a clear visual of how they’d look after using your product. If they love their simulated look, they’ll be compelled to purchase your products online. 

You can add value to the AR feature by providing makeup tutorials. 

3. Paint

It isn’t very pleasant to purchase paint only to find out that the shade is different from the one indicated on the container or the shelf. If you manage a paint company, you can save your customers’ frustration and disappointment by leveraging AR. 

An AR app allows shoppers to see how all the paint colors you sell look on the wall and how a product’s color blends with the interior design. This mixed reality application solves the old-age problem of having to visualize a fingertip-sized color magnified to cover an entire wall. 

4. Footwear and shoes

An estimated 60% of shoe buyers buy the wrong size of footwear. That’s a huge concern among consumers. Instead of adding the shoes to the cart, most of them show reluctance because of the uncertainty of whether the shoes will fit.

AR technology takes away the doubt. A customer only needs to point their smartphone camera to their feet in the physical world, and the app calculates their shoe size. 

The advantage is that you can do all that in the comfort of your home. Nike already has an augmented reality feature called “Nike Fit.” Besides measuring shoe size, it also allows easy retrieval of your shoe size from the app when shopping in-store. 

5. Eyeglasses

Although the primary reason for purchasing eyeglasses is to correct sight, many consumers view eyeglasses from a cosmetic perspective. They want products with frames and colors that complement their faces and suit the occasion. 

Instead of leaving them to speculate on how they appear with a pair of glasses, provide them with an AR application to let them try on their preferred glasses digitally. 

Most eyewear brands have wide-ranging products that they can’t stock all of their inventories in-store. It would also be easier for them to try your glasses using an AR app. 

They won’t have to take pictures of themselves and send them to friends for feedback.

Instead, AR technology allows them to easily see themselves in the app wearing the glasses. This digital information empowers them to make quick, informed purchase decisions. 

AR is still nascent in the commercial retail sector, but it’s gaining ground. With consumers’ demands, needs and behaviors changing, you want your brand to stand out by providing a memorable, engaging and satisfactory consumer experience. 

AR technology unlocks your products’ value to your target customers by focusing on the unique features of what you’re selling through interactions and visual simulations. With such an experience, shoppers will purchase your product once they’ve seen and loved how it looks. 

If you want to increase your sales while providing an unmatched customer experience through digital content, partner with Threekit today. 

We provide businesses with powerful AR solutions with three key features (3D configurators, virtual photography and AR) that let your customers have interactive AR experiences. Visit us online to get started with our AR software.