3 Reasons Why Augmented Reality Matters for Multichannel Commerce

Remember the time when everyone was talking about virtual reality (VR)? The ridiculous VR glasses, helmet and gloves, which never really succeeded in making you feel like you were part of the action.

You might also remember what you were thinking when Obi-Wan Kenobi appeared as a hologram in the "Star Wars" movies. That seemed impossible. Well, do a quick search for "Kinect + iPad" on YouTube. Today, it's actually a reality, rather, augmented reality.

Many of the videos you find may still look like a geek's dream and far from being ready for the mass market, but I beg to differ. The overlaying of digital data on the real world is here, and it's a valuable tool for merchants. Here are three reasons why augmented reality is important for retailers’ commerce efforts:

1. It provides a different kind of showroom. Why are videos so successful? They explain visually what a product can do and help consumers visualize how it will benefit them. I was recently looking for a cabinet for my living room and found many online as well as offline. What I couldn't tell was whether any of the cabinets would actually fit well or match the room. I wished I could take them home and see what they would look like, but that wasn't practical.

With augmented reality, however, I could have rendered the image of the furniture onto an image of my living room, helping to make my decision easier. The application could have told me whether the dimensions were right and if the shade of brown matched the rest of the room. The buying decision would have been quicker and I could have avoided taking an unwanted item back to the store.

As you think about your business, I'm sure there are plenty of examples of how augmented reality could help your customers visualize the products they're considering buying.

2. It makes your store more interactive. Apart from simply being "cool," augmented reality can enhance a shopper's in-store experience. More value may derive from in-store navigation systems which help consumers find their way through a store, telling them where to find items or what promotions or cross-sell options are available. An in-store navigation system can automatically display additional information about a product or animate it.

This technology can also empower sales clerks and consumers, allowing brick-and-mortar stores to benefit from the sales tactics that have proven so successful online, including personalization, cross-sell, upsell and recommendations.

3. It's inexpensive. Others have done the hard part; you just have to be creative with your implementation. The product, customer, stock-level, in-store map, purchase history, recommendations and personalization data comes from modern commerce systems which already deliver information to websites and mobile devices. You don't even have to invest in hardware, apart from possibly a Kinect or two and an internet-enabled store. Your customers bring their mobile devices, and iPhone and Android already have strong augmented reality apps so people are accustomed to using them.

So how can you offer augmented reality?

1. Invest in multichannel software that delivers data and executes processes in real time, sparing you the hassle of replicating them repeatedly.
2. Enable your stores with internet access. I believe retailers who make it easy to use mobile phones inside their stores, with easy access to the internet, will be tomorrow's winners.
3. Find yourself a creative team that can push the envelope. This is likely to be your biggest expense because everything else is already available today.

Leveraging augmented reality doesn't change how your business processes work. If your company is a multitouchpoint, multichannel organization, capitalizing on augmented reality and the impact it can have can be easily attainable.

Steven Kramer is responsible for running business in the Americas for hybris, which provides a complete multichannel commerce solution. Steven can be reached at steven.kramer@hybris.com.