Five Multi-Billion Dollar Retail Verticals Ripe for Augmented Reality Disruption & the Impact AR will have on them
Augmented reality is here. AR products have already begun to have an impact on the world, from the apps on your phone to the clothing you wear and everything in between. Augmentation makes dreams come true for both customers and businesses by layering the reality we know with new additions, transforming any object – ordinary or not – into something else entirely.
Most notably, smartphone and tablet augmentation has become a major part of tech advancements over the last few years. With the rise in popularity of all mobile devices, augmented reality has taken on a new usefulness and popularity. Augmented apps allow interaction of a completely different nature, removing the customer from their own mind during purchasing decisions and placing them virtually inside your product or store.
Don’t believe us? You will. Here’s a heads up on five retail verticals currently either undergoing or poised to undergo an augmented reality transformation.
Jewelry – $275 Billion
The jewelry industry is about touch and emotion. More than perhaps any other industry, selling jewelry is about establishing empathy and creating desire. And nothing spurs desire like the ability to try on jewelry products. One can imagine the potential those products will have for the buyer socially and visually.
Why the industry is ripe for disruption:
Furniture – $30 Billion
No two people quite have the exact taste in furniture. But that’s OK, because the furniture industry grows anyway! Every home, apartment or dorm dweller needs a place to sit and a place to sleep. The furniture industry takes advantage by providing those places in any combination of color, texture and material you can dream of.
Why the industry is ripe for disruption:
Taking a couch home to see how it looks in the living room isn’t cost-effective. AR allows you to see what a piece of furniture looks like in your house before buying it. It preserves the emotionally positive part of the process that allows buyers to try out different furniture but also creates a new standard of convenience in furniture shopping.
Media – $5.7 Trillion
Media is one of the largest and most consistently disrupted industries. On a nearly daily basis, a journalist or editor finds a new way to present an idea. Sales reps and executives in media are constantly on the lookout for ways to evolve their revenue model. Most importantly, they seek disruptive measures in an effort to differentiate from and outwit their competitors.
Why the industry is ripe for disruption:
At this particular moment, media is scrambling to determine a new model. Print is going out of business, digital ads have scrambled to secure the trust of consumers, and the industry is in a downward trend. Some media groups are doing well, but those same media groups are the ones who have found alternate business models through wire distribution, YouTube, sponsorship, business relationships and a wide variety of other means of surviving. AR is the answer to the question, “Where is media headed next?” for these groups and others like them.
Clothing – $200 Billion
If there is any industry more visual than jewelry (see point #1), it’s clothing. Major fashion brands, generic clothing manufacturers and independent artisan all around the world dream of creating clothing that takes off, from undergarments to slacks to dresses, shoes and more.
Why the industry is ripe for disruption:
The in-store shopping model was already largely disrupted by online orders, but certain elements of the online process have been difficult to replace— until now. Mobile application technologies have made it as simple as “pose and click” for shoppers to create their own instant connection with a product. AR is perfect as a medium to show people entire outfits without them ever having to leave their homes.
Eyewear – $130 Billion
Want a new pair of shades? So do thousands, perhaps millions of other shoppers around the world. Even more seek out frames for clear prescription glasses, transition lenses, or decorative eyewear frames. Glasses stores exist in almost every major city in the world.
Why the industry is ripe for disruption:
If you consider the amount of stylish eyewear sold to the masses year-over-year, and assume that a good portion of those shoppers are interested in performing a trendy new activity that allows them to establish their own tribe or sub-culture, you’re looking at the beginning of an entirely new market. Retailers have already been smart about embracing that market, but NOW is the time to rev up innovation and forward-thinking technology to awaken it even more. Eyewear is ready to change, and augmented reality is the perfect technology to change it.
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