Retail is undoubtedly one of the industries with the widest range of applications for augmented reality. While certain products like detergents and groceries can be purchased online without the need to look at them and test them, things are very different when it comes to clothes, cosmetics, and furniture.
Customers want to make sure that the item they are about to buy will fit them properly, flatter them and achieve the desired result. This is why fashion and beauty brick-and-mortar stores are still extremely successful all over the world. However, augmented reality apps are already making their way into the world of retail and offering customers the chance to do their shopping from home as if they were in the store.
With the opportunity to virtually try on products before they pay for them, people become more and more confident in shopping for shoes, clothes, eyewear, and home decorations using their mobile phones.
At the present, these are some of the best examples of augmented reality apps developed by major retail brands:
Amikasa
Furnishing or redecorating the home can be a huge hassle without some help from an interior decorator. Or from Amikasa, one of the most advanced augmented reality apps for visualizing various pieces of furniture in any placement you want to try around the house.
Amikasa, the winner of the Webby Awards, features products from many furniture and home decoration brands. Thus, users can easily find a perfect match between their preferred style and available budget.
Lowe’s
Furniture and home improvement retailer Lowe’s partnered with Microsoft HoloLens to offer customers the most immersive shopping experience. Using the headset, people can practically furnish and decorate their entire home with Lowe’s products, by visualizing the way each item will fit in the room. The app allows potential customers to make precise measurements and find products which will fit perfectly in their available space.
Thus, with the help of augmented reality, Lowe’s allows its customers to redecorate their houses without even leaving them.
TapPainter
The dull color of the walls in your house really needs to be replaced with something more vibrant. But there is a long road between the intention and the final result, and sometimes without really getting the desired effect. All these issues are a thing of the past: now the TapPainter iPhone app allows everyone to test various colors before actually hiring a team of painters to do the work.
Thanks to the comprehensive color palette featured in TapPainter, everyone will find their favorite colors for the bedroom, kitchen, and living room.
DrawyBook by BIC
The well-known stationery brand BIC developed an AR app for children which, although it does not drive sales directly, certainly works for building brand loyalty. With DrawyBook, children can send their actual drawings into the virtual world and watch them come to life through animations, storylines, and interactions with cartoon characters.
Topology Eyewear
A custom-fit eyewear company, Topology Eyewear, is reshaping the eyewear industry with their augmented reality app, warning you to prepare to hate all other glasses, once you’ve seen and felt the custom-fit difference. And that difference is accomplished by their AR app that helps people design customized glasses, that fit them specifically, using a 3D scan of their face. All customers need to do is take a quick video selfie of themselves, then select the frames they prefer and finally fine-tune the width, height, and alignment of their frames.
The Virtual Fitting Room by Topshop
Is the queue in front of the fitting rooms too long? People shopping for clothes at Topshop do not have to worry about this issue anymore. The Kinect Fitting Room is an augmented reality device which allows people to use gestures to swipe through various items and see how they would look on them.
Forevermark by De Beers
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but each girl needs to find her perfect diamond. The largest diamond retailer in the world, De Beers, made diamond selection easier than ever with the help of an augmented reality web app. Clients need to print a marker, install a browser extension and then browse the product gallery. Whenever they find the perfect piece of jewelry, they have to click on the Try On button and keep the marker in front of their smartphone or laptop camera.
IKEA Place
There is no place like home, but you need to furnish it properly before you can enjoy it. With the iPhone app IKEA Place, it is easier than ever to make sure that each piece of furniture really belongs in your house and fits well with the overall décor. Choosing style, size and color has never been easier for furniture.
Virtual Artist by Sephora
Every woman can become an expert makeup artist with the specialized augmented reality app developed by Sephora. The app allows customers to try on various products and contains various useful tutorials as well. Moreover, women can plan their makeup depending on the outfit they are planning to wear.
Dulux Visualizer
There are many augmented reality apps for home improvement, and Dulux paint manufacturer is joining in. Their AR app allows customers to preview various wall paint combinations, until they reach the desired result. Besides the standard range of paint colors, the app allows users to pick a color from a piece of furniture or decoration and test it as a wall color.
