Augmented Reality ecommerce interactivity Uncategorized Virtual Reality
How AR affects our ecommerce decisions
MRNews
This article emerges in the context of the rapid advances in technology, to understand the diversity of promotional tools that are available for presenting products more persuasively. Before start there are some fundamental concepts necessary to know, mainly regarding Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality they both work in the same scope, both have the ability to alter our perception and to enhance our experiences in such way that it transpose our senses and drives us to an unique state of perception and recognition. In a few words augmented reality is the ability to mix our own reality with diverse virtual objects and Virtual Reality is the ability to transpose the user into an environment opposite to the reality we are living in.
AR is nowadays very attractive both to retailers and consumers because provides an all new perception experience where users can see in real time how their items suits them without the necessity to wear them, of course, this technology is not restricted only to wear goods it can be transversal to barely all business units, it basically consists in creating a superposition of virtual objects such as texts, sounds or computer generated images into the reality the consumer is leaving in.
In the field of ecommerce, brands are trying to embody this experiences within their business hoping to create a better experience to the final consumer and ultimately to generate more sales from it. Consumers will also find this technology beneficial for them as it reduces the time they spend on transportation and shopping and enables an accurate version of reality.
VR is also very attractive although brands are focusing their attentions to AR because it’s more prone to generate sales.
Augmented Reality can truly help a client buy a product, by allowing him to try it on, giving the client an experience that informs more about how and why it was created.
For instance, YouCam Makeup is the smart cosmetic kit, harnessing the most accurate facial mapping technology for a true-to-life virtual makeover. Apply hundreds of cosmetics products in real-time with Makeup Cam or to selfie photos.
This is just the beginning, from there it is necessary continue to look for ways to use the technology to enhance the customers.
FUNCTIONAL MECHANISMS OF AR
In the context of online shopping it is widely known that increased interactivity and vividness allow consumers to more effectively gather information about products by enabling visual examination of realistically displayed virtual products.
Vividness is the representational richness of a mediated environment (Steuer, 1992). Interactivity is the extent to which users can participate in modifying the form and content on mediated environment (Steuer, 1992)
HOW EFFECTIVE ARE AR BASED PRODUCT PRESENTATION COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL USED WEB-BASED PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS
In order to obtain reliable results, it was necessary to create a Web-Based experience at the level of an AR experience with respect to levels of interactivity and vivedness.
To obtain reliable results, a young segment was chosen because they are more receptive to innovative new technologies compared to other segments. The segment was further divided among users with no previous experience with new technology and users with high technology experience. The experiment used two areas related to fashion, an experience with sunglasses and another with watches.
In the case of the experience with the sunglasses, the users could obtain a realistic notion of how the glasses would stay on their face, without great effort obtained this result, already in the case of the clocks, the users were required to make rotation with the arm and pulse, as well as put them together with the webcamera so that the software can create an experience of using the watch on your wrist.
This action made the experience not only complicated but negative because it made the user uncomfortable. Curiously, the experiment demonstrated that previous technology users tended to ignore this aspect and were not bothered by the exercise that was required.
Of a universe of 506 participants, 190 responded openly contributing their feedback on the experience with AR, in general the feedback on AR was very positive due to the fact that it is a novelty, yet some points such as discomfort in the have been mentioned as less positive feedback.
Some opinions, in a positive way “this new technology was almost mind-blowing”, while in a contradictory way a user replied “… the technology had a hard time positioning the glasses on your face”, other aspects less positive and that should be improved for a better inclusion of the AR in the e-commerce were the small delay sense in the applications that made the users lose the interest and graphics unrealistic.
Studies show that AR, in comparison with traditional Web-based product presentations, is generally superior, much because it is novel, immersive, more enjoyable, and useful. These results cast doubt on whether the RA would continue to be effective when the novelty effect ceases to exist.
WHAT DETAILED PROCESS IS USED IN AUGMENTED REALITY COMPARED TO WEB TO GENERATE CONSUMER EVALUATIONS?
To compare AR-based and web-based product presentations, a second study was conducted through a survey. As study 1, the participants were college students and the products were sunglasses and watches. To better evaluate participants’ opinions, a sentiment and text analysis were carried out. The sentiment analysis purpose is to group answers, for example, in positive, negative or neutral. The text analysis allows to extract relevant information and turn into a valid and useful information.
In the sentiment analysis, 10% of the responses were neutral ones, and the other 90% were positive and negative ones (equally likely within polarity responses). In the text analysis, 4 pairs of words were identified “product; information”, “try; store”, “new; technology” and “hard; face”.
One of the finding, was that this new technology, AR, raises positive and negative understanding in the participants. While some of them think that this new way of selling products is impressive, others see the technology issues (delay, unreal, etc) as a problem and a barrier.
Thus, there is a lot of room for progression to improve consumer’s perception and to upgrade the experience and technology.
YOUCAM MAKEUP
Augmented Reality can truly help a client buy a product, by allowing him to try it on, giving the client an experience that informs more about how and why it was created.
For instance, YouCam Makeup is the smart cosmetic kit, harnessing the most accurate facial mapping technology for a true-to-life virtual makeover. Apply hundreds of cosmetics products in real-time with Makeup Cam or to selfie photos.
This is just the beginning,
from there it is necessary continue to look for ways to use the technology to enhance the customers.
This post is based on “ Is Augmented Reality Technology an Effective Tool for E-commerce? An Interactivity and Vividness Perspective” and was written by Patrícia Roque, Maria Barroso, Luís Chaveiro e Nuno Carvalho.
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