Last Christmas, my daughter asked for a new princess bed. Being such a nice dad, I started to search for the perfect bed online, trying to imagine which model would match the existing princessy wallpaper that she simply adores.
After two returns, I realized that the task was way beyond my powers. "If only I could have seen how it looked in her room before buying the bed," I complained to one of my clients.
“It’s funny you mentioned that,” she smiled, showing me an AR furniture preview app on her iPhone. And right there, to my surprise, she placed a virtual bed next to the very real sofa I was sitting on.
This new technology is revolutionizing the e-commerce landscape, solving real problems for dads, moms, daughters, and everyone else.
AR Solves Visualization Problems
It is known that e-commerce sales are hindered by a fundamental disadvantage: people can’t interact with products before buying them. This reduces profits, diminishes conversion rates, and leads to high return rates.
And even with the best product photos you could imagine, you simply can’t recreate the brick-and-mortar shopping experience online. However, the mixture of AI-generated images and augmented reality gives potential buyers the opportunity to test virtual representations of products in their homes.
AI-Powered Image Generation Cuts Costs
If you want to get traditional, high-quality product photos, you’d better be prepared to spend a lot of time and money. Just think about placing that princessy bed in 10 different rooms, each having different pieces of furniture!
With AI-powered images, you can create real-life photos in unlimited contexts at a fraction of the cost. It’s as easy as taking a picture of the product, and then having AI generate hundreds of images of it, in different contexts.
However, the real power of AI comes to life when these images are fed into augmented reality applications.
AR Boosts Active Visitor Engagement
Augmented Reality turns bored people into active website visitors. By making use of their smartphone cameras, anyone can:
- Test various furniture pieces in their rooms.
- Try on jewelry, glasses, etc.
- Experiment with various paint colors on their walls.
- Test new clothes.
- So much more!
It goes way beyond what meets the eye. The second visitors “drop” products in their environments, they begin to “own” them mentally. It’s no wonder that AR-powered e-commerce experiences have the potential to double the conversion rate in comparison to traditional e-commerce product pages, according to a recent study.
AI is perfect when it comes to generating the high-quality, multi-angle product images that are required by AR.
Future Augmented Reality Technologies
As AR technology matures, in-store experiences are becoming less and less relevant. The next generation of virtual shopping combines AI-powered image generation, AR visualization, and personalization, showing customers products styled according to their preferences, previous acquisitions, etc.
For e-commerce business owners, the AI/AR/personalization solution is invaluable, because it allows them to sell sought-after products to customers who end up purchasing exactly what they were looking for.
And for people like me? Well, we’ll have no more bedroom furniture disasters, and our children will live happier lives. Probably…