Augmented reality is one of the biggest buzzwords right now and people are looking for ways to bring this technology to every industry. As much as I love e-commerce, there is still a (purposeful) disconnect from the brick and mortar shopping experience, especially with apparel. I feel that when technology can bridge this gap, e-commerce sales can only grow as shoppers continue to turn online. Augmented reality is one of the technologies that, when used effectively, could do a lot to bridge this disconnect.
One of the coolest demos that I saw at this year’s shop.org was the augmented reality dressing room tool that was developed by Zugara in partnership with Richrelevance. This tool allows shoppers to “virtually” try on clothes, put together outfits, and share these items with their friends on Facebook. This is all made possible through the use of Flash, a web cam, and hand gestures from the shopper. Really awesome stuff.
This week, Zugara and Richrelevance have announced that this technology has been brought to online boutique Tobi.com. Through the application, called Fashionista, shoppers can now shop the catalog using their web cam and interact with their friends. It’s really great to see this technology go live.
How are shoppers going to react? Tough to say. This is still emerging technology but with a very long life cycle ahead of it. Augmented reality may just be entering the e-commerce arena, but expect many more of these applications in the future. For now, the Fashionista application is a great first step in implementing augmented reality in e-commerce. I can’t wait to see this app grow.
I’ve embedded a video, below, showing the Zugara demo at the Richrelevance booth from shop.org. Above is a screenshot showing the application being used on Tobi.com.