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The global eCommerce market has become increasingly competitive over the last few years. Online store owners constantly look for new upgrades and features to enhance the viewer’s experience. Augmented reality is one feature that has become common in applications and websites. Integrating AR into your WooCommerce store helps you give your customers an immersive shopping experience.
Let us look at the basics of AR, its applications in eCommerce and how to integrate AR into WooCommerce stores.
Source: Photo by UniBoa on Unsplash
Applications of AR in online stores
Augmented reality (AR) is the real world’s improved version achieved through digital visual elements and other sensory stimuli. It is displayed to the user in the form of an experience via various technology mediums. AR is immersive and fits perfectly in retail, where people want to experience products before making a purchase decision.
AR gets delivered to viewers via websites and applications on tablets and smartphones. It uses the device’s cameras to overlay interactive visual assets with the real world. Brands are successfully earning more from this technology, and experts predict that over 85 million customers in the US will be using AR technology in retail by 2024.
Visualize and Experience Products
When customers want to purchase something from an online store, they research a couple of other similar products and analyze the pros and cons. Once they are satisfied with what a particular product offers, they make a purchase. However, they cannot try out the product until it reaches their home. On the contrary, in physical stores, people can try on products like clothes before they buy them.
Integrating augmented reality in eCommerce ensures that people experience online and offline stores the best. AR enables customers to visualise and experience products in a space to ensure they are right for their requirements. For example, in an AR application, you can see how clothes look on you virtually. Using your smartphone camera, you can see how furniture may look in your living space.
Virtual Showrooms
AR has also contributed to the development of virtual showrooms. They are digitally created environments with the same feel and function as a physical showroom. It enables customers to –
- Interact with products
- Examine products closely, from every angle
- Conduct virtual trials
- Offer a live view of real-world locations
- Provide computer-generated sensory input
To enhance the experience for users, it also includes multimedia content, video, sounds, graphics, and other data overlaid with the physical environment. Multiple top global companies currently utilize advanced tech to gain more customers and give them an extraordinary shopping experience.
Enjoyable Experiences
Since the pandemic, people have increasingly started to prefer buying digital products or shopping for them online. To avoid giving repetitive experience, WooCommerce store owners have integrated AR into their stores. They have elevated the shopping experience by enhancing the level of customer satisfaction.
AR also helps buyers navigate a showroom to find the right product they are looking for. In contrast with physical stores, where people have to wander around to find the right thing, AR showrooms allow customers to virtually navigate store aisles and find the exact product they are looking for.
Source: Insider Intelligence
Integrating AR tech in your eCommerce store
Advertising professionals are leveraging the power of AR to drive up sales in the retail industry. The global AR advertising revenue amounted to half a billion dollars in 2019. However, it grew to $1.41. billion in the year 2020. Therefore, eCommerce store owners are inclined to adopt AR technologies in their stores. As an online store owner, if you want to use AR in your WooCommerce store, you can consider the following benefits.
Build experience around customer needs
While buying a product, customers are required to explore different options. They may also look at different colours, patterns, designs, and products. While this can be difficult to do in an online store, it is easy to do with the help of AR. Augmented reality features 3D models of different products, which makes it easier for store owners to offer a customized experience to their customers.
Clarify your business objectives
Before you integrate AR in your WooCommerce store, ensure that you have a clear vision of why you want this tech in your store. You can use it to ramp up your store, and its checkout experience or provide better customer service. Customer service AR enables you to deliver real-time customer support. It can help you get visual assistance and reduce miscommunication while providing enhanced customer service to your buyers.
Identify the tools to use
After you have clear objectives, you can decide on the tools you can implement in your store. There are various tools like license-type AR solutions, supported devices, and operating systems. Depending on your store requirements, you can select a tool and market it to your customers.
Source: Photo by Roberto Nickson on Pexels
Brands using AR in their stores
Several retail businesses are using augmented reality to improve their business, get more customers and improve the overall experience of their stores. Here are brands that have implemented AR effectively and benefited from it:
Lenskart
Lenskart also enables a Virtual AR tool with the help of an application. People who want to buy eyewear can use this tool with their cameras. The tool analyses their faces and enables them to try different types of glasses quickly, offering a 360-degree view of the product.
Nykaa
Similarly, the leading beauty-product platform Nykaa also leverages the power of AR tools to enable users to try on products. People can use their smartphone cameras in the app to try on different makeup products. It helps them make an informed decision based on how particular products look on them.
IKEA AR App
IKEA has effectively used AR by developing an application. They enable their customers to pick models in various colours and try them on in their space. It has helped reduce their return rate and helped clients pick the right goods using their gadgets.
Source: Photo by Bram Van Oost on Unsplash
Why AR trends will stay
As technology progresses each day, people are expecting new and better products from businesses and online stores. By integrating AR in your WooCommerce stores, you can:
- Increase convenience and customer satisfaction
- Provide a phenomenal experience to customers
- Reduce customer return rates
- Use AR in your WooCommerce store to offer a 3D view of the product
- Users can see the product’s every angle in detail
- Enables your customers to see the product in their space and receive the exact product they ordered
AR Plugins for Your WooCommerce Store
Here are a few popular AR plugins that you can use in your WooCommerce store:
AR for WooCommerce
The AR for the WooCommerce application developed by Web and Print Design supports model files for viewing in browsers, Android devices, and iOS. Installing this application can allow your customers to see your products in their environment. It can also help them to try on products before they buy and help you boost your profits.
CartMagician
The CartMagician Pro for WooCommerce AR Plugin enables you to add WebAR files to be added directly to your WooCommerce store. With no further hassle, your customers can interact with your products in augmented reality. It also allows you to conveniently enhance your customer’s online shopping experience without requiring additional applications.
Augmented Reality & 3D Visualizer for WooCommerce
This plugin developed by OGMO helps transform your WooCommerce website with the help of AR technology. It offers a free plan to new users and is compatible with iOS and Android. It is easy to use and does not require you to have any coding or technical skills.
Pros and Cons Of Your WooCommerce Store
Even though integrating AR can benefit your business, it is essential to weigh its pros and cons. Only then can you objectively determine which is the right choice for your WooCommerce store.
Here are a few pros and cons that you can refer to:
| Pros | Cons |
| Offer consumers an AR experience | Costly 3D models |
| Enables people to see how products will look on them or in their spaces, from the comfort of their homes | Inaccurate display of sizing, colours, and other specifics due to lack of depth. People consider these specifics while purchasing products |
| Reduce product returns through accurate displays | Security concerns as AR applications require almost complete access to devices |
| Helps promote lesser-known products | Can consume more battery from mobile devices |
| Improved customer experience | Limited field of view and may require bulky headsets |
In Conclusion
It can be difficult to sell products online as customers cannot know how the product looks in real life. Integrating AR in WooCommerce stores can help eradicate this misconception. These applications can enhance your business and provide your customers with the products and services they need.
