The digital age has altered the paradigm of shopping with most people checking out products or services online before venturing to purchase something either via an e-commerce store or a brick-and-mortar one. The advent of the pandemic made almost everybody take to extensive online research prior to ordering stuff online or from a store physically in exceedingly rare cases. What made the process very convenient and efficient are the advances in technology in the shape of 3D and animation that have made it possible for us to have very life-like pre-shopping experiences. The growing popularity of the metaverse where your digital avatar can actually visit replicas of real-life stores to check out what’s on offer promises to take the pre-shopping experience to another level altogether.
Augmented Reality and 3D animation are redefining the pre-shopping experience by making it amazingly life-like and real. This is something that businesses across the board can take advantage of and leverage. That is where TrackMatriX Solutions has earned a formidable reputation as an enabler of 3D and animation technology for brands. In the US, shoppers often use what is known as try-on technology which helps them obtain a very personalized online shopping experience
According to creditable research, 41% of Americans would like a personalized shopping experience. This percentage is 30% for apparel, 30% for shoes, 25% for home goods and 19% for furniture.1 Millennials and Gen Z shoppers, as a rule, would like a personalized visit or experience to help them decide what to buy and whether or not to become loyal customers of a brand.
A case in point is furniture, where the instances of online purchases are on the up and retailers have started using 3D and AR tools to make customers better understand the products, they are considering buying. Driving sales or inducing loyalty on the part of the customers requires retailers to invest in appropriate technology that is user-friendly for both the retailers and the consumers
The shopping experience can occur at home, while one is on the go and in the store itself. Providing them with a pre-shopping experience can help customers feel more assured over their choice about the product or service of interest. This can happen by way of their obtaining more detailed product information, their ability to customize designs according to their precise requirements and the forging of a very deep emotional connection with the help of a very immersive brand experience.
The extent to which these pre-shopping experiences can be customized determines the success of retailers to leverage pre-shopping experiences to optimal levels, in terms of leading to more sales and a loyal clientele. 3D and augmented reality animation technology is something that retailers and e-commerce stores would do well to invest in.
Over the long run, it will allow them to make cost savings, enhance their brand competitiveness and as a bonus reduce the environmental impact of doing business. In the apparel business, for instance,
returned goods cause a colossal loss. This can be easily reduced substantially by allowing potential customers to have a very life-like customizable experience with a technology-enhanced pre-shopping experience that lets them have a precise preview of what they would be buying.
The other thing is the rise in customized demand for products like apparel. Most people prefer buying customized products over mass products. Product diversity is in-uniformity is out. The advances made by 3D and AI solutions have helped cause a revolution in fashion measurement thanks to the use of digital avatars and virtual try-on. This empowers customers to shop with more confidence and no longer have to order multiple product sizes.
The average e-commerce retailer loses as much as three fourth of its potential sales to cart abandonment. This is mainly because many retailers don’t have a returns policy that the clients are happy with. Leveraging augmented reality will help retailers overcome this problem by showing customers precisely what the products are like before they place the order, so that there is no likelihood of them wanting to return them later.
AR solutions work perfectly for retailers selling large or expensive products that are difficult to return. It also works quite well in the case of products that the potential buyer would want to experience before committing to a purchase. Combing real-world images with their digital representation provides shoppers with a realistic sense of their products’ size, scale and details enabling them to make a near-perfect buying decisions.
The world that we live in is being reshaped by digitization at a pace and scale that is unprecedented. That is bringing about a paradigm change in the way that the world functions. Pre-shopping experience with the help of 3D and AR animation is but a small part of this massive change in the way things will be done in the times ahead. Like always, the first movers will reap the most benefit from this fundamental evolution in the way shopping will occur in the times ahead. Companies like TrackMatriX will play a stellar role in providing these technologies to the retail sector and other industries looking to leverage the power of new-age immersive technology.
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