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Ways AR is changing the Retail Sector

Posted on by adminn

2020 forever changed the trajectory of digital transformation in every business, in every industry. As the global pandemic endured, customers prioritized their health and safety, and embraced digital-first shopping behaviours. With every consumer click, tap, and swipe, businesses were forced to advance their experience.

Innovators, however, must look beyond digitization, basic ecommerce, and ordinary digital engagement, to differentiate, and create sought after value. Augmented reality, and mixed reality overall, represents a unique accelerant to deliver new experiences, awaken the senses, online and IRL (in real life), and enhance engagement throughout the customer’s journey. Augmented reality represents an immediate opportunity to enrich shopping experiences.

AR for an Enhanced Experience

With AR, brands have a novel opportunity to deliver value-added experiences, beyond shiny object syndrome. Through augmented reality, brands and retailers can unlock a new dimension to digital and physical shopping where products and experiences are brought to life. These experiences can come to life at home, in-store, or anywhere. All it takes is imagination and innovation.

A recent study found that 63% of consumers believe AR will transform their shopping experience and 61% indicated that they would prefer to make purchases on sites that offer AR technology. More so, 70% of consumers reported that they would be more loyal to brands incorporating AR as part of their shopping experience.

The stores as we know are changing with AR. These will allow customers to engage in ways unknown and help retailers generate leads in better and optimized ways. This includes revamped trail rooms, trial rides for cars and more. You could even share them over with your friends with just one tap!

AR in Ecommerce Today

IKEA paved the way for AR commerce by helping customers move beyond imagining what furniture could look like in their spaces. Launched in 2017, the IKEA Place app helps customers visualize products from its catalogue, through AR, at true scale, within any space.

Following the popularity of the IKEAs AR app, a handful of innovative brands have continued to demonstrate the promise of AR in online and in-store shopping.

For example, Nike brought AR to the footwear and clothing categories. The experience uses AR to scan the customers’ feet and find the right shoe for them. From scanning your feet to finding the perfect size, the process takes less than one minute.

Warby Parker is innovating the way customers try on glasses with their at-home try-on AR experience through their mobile app. When a customer enters the “try on” area of the app, they simply flip their phone to selfie mode and select the frames they want to see on their face. While other glasses brands have tried AR, Warby Parker has paved the way with a real-time selection of frames.

Walmart is using AR to interact with their customers on their shelves through a range of display options of hair colour and recommended shades that customers can try on in real-time. Once a user scans the barcode provided, their camera opens to try on all options. Walmart is the first retailer to implement brick-and-mortar AR for their stores to enhance in-store experiences.

AR also is getting a big boost from one of the most revered, market-making innovators in the game. In 2020, Apple entered the mix, mixed reality that is, with the integration of LiDAR scanners in higher-end iPhone and iPad models. These new cameras will give consumers the ability to scan and also virtually imprint vivid 3D images into online and real-world experiences. Apple also launched what it refers to as the “world’s largest AR platform,” giving developers the tools they need to develop and market compelling AR experiences. AR doesn’t just mean augmented visualization. The company also introduced spatial audio capabilities in its most recent AirPods Pro and Max lines, which sets the stage for immersive, integrated audio and video virtual experiences.

Bottom line

Even in the early days of COVID-19, the market size for AR was estimated at almost $19 billion by 2023. With the pandemic lingering, consumer adoption of ecommerce and online shopping will only continue to gain momentum. This definitely is AR’s moment.

Retailers and brands must think beyond traditional retail, commerce, and even legacy spatial design. Innovators must reimagine customer engagement and CX through a lens of next-generation experience architecture, one that augments, enhances, and blurs the line between physical and digital (#PhyDi) worlds.

AR represents an opportunity for experience architects to imagine and enliven innovative, value-added, and engaging new worlds. Amazing, productive AR experiences represent a competitive advantage and a promise to drive growth by increasing customer engagement, attracting new shoppers, and boosting conversion rates.

Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/2021-is-the-year-ar-commerce-becomes-an-actual-reality/

Emotion AI will disrupt your marketing strategy

Posted on by adminn

It’s no secret that our emotions drive our behaviours. But what if brands could leverage those emotions to deliver powerful messages that truly resonate with consumers? Believe it or not, this is already a reality thanks to Artificial Emotional Intelligence (Emotion AI). This technology combines behavioural and sensory data enabling brands to hyper-personalise physical and digital experiences both, online and offline, thus increasing sales. So how will this technology fundamentally change the way we cater to consumers?

Artificial Emotional Intelligence

Emotion AI is a form of emotion detection technology. It enables everyday objects to recognise our verbal and non-verbal behaviour and respond accordingly. Numerous tech giants and startups have been investing in Emotion AI for over a decade using various means such as algorithms, facial recognition and voice analysis to recognise human emotions. This disrupting technology will likely affect all industries from video games to marketing. It has the power to create more personalised user experiences and could help brands achieve real-time empathetic marketing, a concept that was once thought to be impossible. At a time when consumers are demanding a more human approach to marketing, this tech could help accomplish just that.

The Potential Of Emotion AI

Humans still have the upper hand when it comes to reading emotions but machines are gaining more ground using their own strengths: analysing large amounts of data in the blink of an eye. All of this data allows brands to develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of their customers through recognising and interpreting human emotions.

This technology can also be used to further engage customers and build lasting relationships with them. For instance, marketers could implement chatbots which use AI technology to identify a customer’s personality traits and what drives their emotional responses regarding a company’s product selection or services. Based on an individual’s answers, the chatbot could direct them towards the most appropriate website content or, alternatively, a live customer service agent.

Such a simple tactic can be used by all industries to deliver a more relevant message to consumers. This is particularly important for B2B companies as on average, according to Google research, B2B customers are more emotionally connected to their vendors and service providers than consumers. Because a B2B customer isn’t only buying for himself, but for their entire company, thus a strong emotional affection and connection with their supplier is important.

But it doesn’t stop there, this technology can also be deployed in real-time to analyse consumer behaviour in-store. For example, the retail industry could use Emotion AI to understand how shoppers really feel about what they are buying — or not buying. Small sensors and cameras around product displays could show how people feel about prices, packaging and even branding. If people look at a price tag and frown, it might be good to lower prices. Alternatively, if shoppers analyse a product’s packaging and appear confused, you might want to redesign or simplify that packaging.

Lastly, if emotional responses suggest frustration when it comes to shelf placement and aisle arrangement, a small layout reconfiguration might be in order. So, this technology could also cater to consumer’s needs offline.

The Change Will Be Slow

With the promise to measure and engage consumers based on something once thought to be intangible, real-time empathetic marketing holds great potential for brands. But the adoption of this technology will be gradual given the amount of data it captures and its potentially intrusive nature. Consumers are more and more concerned about their privacy on the internet and many feel very uncomfortable at the thought of a video capturing and analysing their movements and facial expressions. As a result, this will slow down the application of Artificial Emotional Intelligence in marketing.

However, if your company decides to use Emotion AI, a key aspect to winning over consumer trust is to be transparent about what you are doing, how you are doing it, and what exactly you will use this data for. Transparency is crucial given how invasive this technology could be. Additionally, you could offer your customers a value exchange as a way of thanking them for their contribution.

Taking Personalisation To The Next Level

In the near future, businesses will have to shift their focus when trying to understand their customers and move past traditional sales metrics, focusing more on direct and indirect customer feedback. Then, as AI capabilities continue to improve, companies can leverage demographical, behavioural, and emotional data to more accurately reach their desired target audience and give them both a marketing message but also a product that they truly want.

So though this technology is still in the early stages of development, it will allow brands to deliver more relevant messages to highly segmented audiences and give them more meaningful experiences.

Source: https://www.deptagency.com/story/emotional-ai-will-disrupt-your-marketing-strategy/