Augmented Reality: how Pikachu helps e-commerce

With over 75 million downloads in less than three weeks, the release of Pokémon Go made headlines all around the world. All over the world stories in the news told of hunts for the likes of Squirtle, Charmander and Co.

Time and again there were reports on how augmented reality finally had its first big breakthrough. But amid all of the fanfare, one important detail seemed to go unnoticed for the most part: the technology behind Pokémon Go isn’t new at all. The term ‘augmented reality’ has been used by the computing and entertainment industry since the beginning of the nineties. What Pokémon Go managed to achieve, however, was to bring this technology to private users by making it available for anyone with a smartphone or tablet.

Augmented reality presents enormous marketing potential, a fact that’s supported by the interesting wave of new e-commerce applications that have come about over the past few years: from virtual furniture stores, to fitting glasses via webcam, new approaches to this technology appear to cropping up more in more in our daily lives. And as this trend continues to grow, the industry will most likely react by releasing more and more applications. Companies that are quick to react will be able to make the most of users’ interest for augmented reality and potentially be able to tap into new customer groups.

Augmented reality refers to any computer-assisted expansion to the way in which we perceive reality. While virtual reality users are fully immersed in their digital worlds, augmented reality simply adds digital aspects or content to the real world by relying on elements or features such as:

• The visual representation of additional information in the real world
• Adding additional information to videos or images
• Fading in virtual objects

Virtual elements in your real environment? One simple example that most people seem to know of this comes from sports broadcasts. Often during a football game, television broadcasters add in additional information. Whether or not a player was offside is often easy to recognise, as the offside line is digitally faded onto the viewer’s screen. And when it comes to ski jumping, a digital line is projected across the screen in order to indicate to viewers whether or not the jumper has surpassed the distance of the current leading contender.

In order to be able to experience augmented reality with a mobile device while on the go, one generally needs a camera, a tracking device, and the proper software. This technology can be implemented in many different areas; it can be used to help carry out complex tasks in industrial settings or can be used to support military and disaster management topics, for example. As previously mentioned, however, the entertainment industry has been responsible for most of the recent increase in attention surrounding the technology. Other fields, including architecture and medicine also employ this technology.

Click here to download the infographic about the prognosis of virtual and augmented reality.

Augmented reality combines real life with digital components. When these two aspects blend together, such marketing mechanisms are able to fascinate their viewers, leaving a stronger impression behind with potential customers. But in addition to the attention that’s gained through augmented reality, this means of advertising also opens up new options for directly coming into contact with customers. Brands and businesses have the option of projecting information to their customers in real time. This tactic offers marketers the chance to get in contact with target groups on a more personal level.

But why should customers be interested in allowing such interferences in their daily lives? The answer is because they too stand to gain from this increased level of contact with brands and companies, as examples from the e-commerce sector show.

Augmented reality is also extensively used in the furniture and design industry. Known for its creative and innovative marketing and business practices, the Swedish industry giant, IKEA, began experimenting with AR technology as early as 2013. The idea here is to enable prospective customers to project furniture items from the current IKEA catalog into their own living room. True to scale, these projections allow shoppers to get an idea of how the item would look within the confines of their own private quarters.

The following video lays out how this technology works:

Pair is a further company that is able to give perspective customers access to virtual showrooms with the help of augmented reality. The iOS app allows users to place furniture items within their own four walls. The concept is similar to that the IKEA application mentioned above but is even more advanced. Pair works together with various brands and producers and claims that its service helps customers more quickly decide upon a product, increasing the amount of augmented reality-driven sales in the process.

Pair is also an interesting tool for interior designers and architects. The app allows customers to view how the planned set-up would look within the customers’ space. Pair allows ideas to be more concretely visualised and makes planned room designs more tangible.

Many voices from the digital industry have already spoken and declared that augmented reality will be an important marketing trend for the next several years. The diverse array of approaches to this technology means that there’s great potential for expanding the reach of your products or services and enhancing your customer’s experience. Niche markets, in particular, stand to gain from this technology, as the example with trying on eye glasses shows.

In any case, this technology can be implemented in many different areas, and the hype around apps like Pokémon Go only increase the notoriety of augmented reality, paving the way for future applications.