Title: How are VR and AR Contributing to the Retail Industry?

By: Retail CIO Outlook | Monday, March 16, 2020

The enactment of VR and AR in the retail industry offers new techniques the retailers can operate on. These technologies are significantly extending and expanding on traditional services provided by the retail sector.

FREMONT, CA: It is anticipated that by 2025, the global market for AR and VR will reach $ 1.6 billion. By implementing AR and VR, retailers and customers can enjoy the seamless shopping experience, simultaneously decreasing operating expenses for retailers, and providing an immersive, engaging experience to customers.

Applications of AR and VR in retail

1. Beauty Industry

The AR empowers users to ‘try’ hundreds of beauty products and make decisions based on their choice. Customers can also try these items at the comfort of their fingers. It helps in saving a big deal of time as there is no need to visit an outlet personally. Besides, retailers can get benefitted from this by offering its customers cashback and discounts since selling items on a digital platform is often cheaper in comparison to brick-and-mortar stores.

2. Furniture Retail

Furniture retailers, by using AR, provide spatial awareness, which can help customers in finding the appropriate type of furniture according to their apartment space. The technology enables the users to project the exact size of the furniture and have a better idea about how the furniture will look at a certain place they are planning to put. Besides, shoppers are able to gauge the style and color of the chosen furniture and make decisions on whether to move ahead with the purchase.

3. Fashion and footwear

AR possesses the potential to bring the process of fitting and trying out new clothing and styles to houses. It helps in enhancing the range of options available significantly to the customer. Moreover, retailers can provide the consumer with a huge array of choices online. The customers are also able to get a seamless shopping experience as they save them from the task of trying on different clothes that get tiresome after some time. The same applies to the beauty sector, where retailers can provide its customers with attractive discounts using digital shopping techniques simultaneously, maintaining their profit margins.

In a nutshell, the future of retail heavily involves technology, and VR and AR are going to have a significant role to play in this service industry.