Augmented Reality: The Next Big Thing

AR is poised to fundamentally change the shopping experience of everyone who shops online every day. People can now - and this is not pie in the sky - place full-size products in their living room, bedroom or office at home and then explore them from every side, from every angle and in every detail, and of course also check in detail whether it looks as desired in its future environment.

However, if we look back at the developments in the field of augmented and virtual reality, hype and disillusionment followed one another with regularity. It was obviously difficult for protagonists, journalists and analysts to forecast the future even halfway accurately. There was always a lack of a killer application that would have helped these technologies achieve a broad breakthrough.

Just how much the use of AR has the potential to change our world was glimpsed in 2016 when we stumbled upon Pokémon Go players hunting virtual creatures on our real streets. Now there are currently two technological developments that have given rise to the aforementioned killer application - AR in online retail.

Integral part of iOS and Android

The first of these technological developments is the deep integration of AR into the mobile operating systems iOS and Android by Apple and Google. The background is that both Apple and Google recognized the enormous potential of AR for shopping, gaming, learning and countless other application areas. As a result, they became the drivers of these technologies.

The latest development is that every modern smartphone and tablet can place virtual objects in the real world around us when looking through the camera - without the need for an app. To do this, the mobile devices recognize walls, floors, ceilings, objects and other people in the environment and thus give the user the opportunity to examine what he wants to buy in his personal environment. The sensor technology of the devices is so precise that amazing effects are possible here. The YouTube videos of both global players give an idea of how our world will change as a result.

Digitization of physical products has become fast and cheap

But in order to be able to use AR in online shopping, it must additionally be possible to digitize almost any physical product so that we can then look at its digital twin at home before we buy it online. And this is precisely the second technological leap that has recently taken place: Scanning technologies are available that allow any online retailer to either digitize their products themselves or commission this as a service.

To ensure that the result of this digitization is satisfactory, however, the scanning technologies must meet a number of requirements: The object surfaces must be reproduced razor-sharp in HD photo quality, glass and metal must appear brilliant, microstructures on the object surfaces must ensure that leather or wood, for example, can be perceived as natural materials, and of course the whole thing must also work for large numbers of products and in as short a time as possible. Last but not least, the algorithms used in digitization must ensure that the file sizes of these digital product twins remain as tiny as possible. All of this can be done cost-effectively, quickly and efficiently today.

Significantly more sales through AR

The two leaps in technology ensure that almost every online retailer can now not only promote its products online using static photos, videos and explanations, but that its customer also has the opportunity to view the product in its original size and in detail at home. In this way, it is possible to look at a sofa, a shelf or a vase, but also kitchens, electrical appliances and much more in one's own home and make a better choice on this basis. This reduces the risk of making a wrong purchase, for example, by buying furniture that is too big or too small.

An initial study conducted by the University of Göttingen in 2019 suggests that shoppers are willing to spend significantly more money on a product in the context of online shopping if they were able to examine it at home in AR before buying. Further subsequent studies should support this effect and determine the reasons for this behavior. The use of AR can thus not only generate higher sales, but also reduce the returns rate and thus shipping costs.

Promising future

Of course, AR on smartphones and tablets is only a first step. But if you imagine that we could no longer see objects through a device in our hand, but in the entire field of vision of our eyes, that would be another enormous step. The logical consequence is that presumably quite normal glasses will get a retrofittable feature with which they can project AR objects into the environment.

Intel developed a prototype here some time ago that did just that by means of a small projector attached to the frame of the glasses: The AR image was thus projected onto the retina of the eye. Contact lenses that provide an AR image would also be conceivable. This is where our world will most certainly continue to develop very significantly. And the rumor mill continues to bubble: Apple is expected to launch a product with exactly this goal soon.

Conclusion

AR is about to revolutionize shopping behavior, especially in online shopping - thanks to two current technological developments that interact simultaneously and precisely: On the one hand, the technologies for creating "digital twins" of online store products; these digital images are necessary so that the products can be positioned virtually in real space at all. On the other hand, the recognition of the real space by the smartphone or tablet. This means that store visitors can now examine every product in its original size and in absolute detail at home with a single click - without having to download an app in the middle of the shopping process.