WebAR in Retail Marketing: Reshaping the Shopping Experience
In today's world of digital advertising, people have grown ad-blind, often hitting the "skip" button before even engaging with a brand's message. This makes it essential to differentiate your brand with creative, engaging campaigns. New and innovative ways to stand out involve employing interactive and fun approaches like gamification, and the fast-growing realm of Augmented Reality (AR) experiences.
Amid the growing buzz surrounding AR, it's a misconception to think all AR experiences are created equal. Most of us have experienced AR by downloading apps on our phones or our AR/VR headset dedicated to the experience. However, there's another way to access AR experiences called webAR, or Web-based Augmented Reality, which is as simple as scanning a code on your mobile device to activate the experience. What sets WebAR apart is its app-less nature. You don't need to download yet another app; your smartphone camera and browser are all you need. This ease of access has contributed to WebAR's soaring popularity, with a global compatibility in both Android and iOS devices.
App-less AR Experiences for Retail
But how does it work? At its core, WebAR uses your mobile device’s web browser to overlay interactive 3D elements or text onto your camera’s real-world view. This technology can be used by retail brands to either amplify in-store experiences, or act as their sales tool online. Imagine shopping for a watch online and being able to virtually place it on your wrist, allowing you to examine its fine details up close. As retailers face challenges from rising storefront costs and changing consumer habits, WebAR offers an enticing blend of engagement and creative marketing opportunities, drawing consumers closer to products, and even simulating a sense of endowment by letting them virtually try on products. Let’s take a closer look into the WebAR technology, and why it might just be the lifeline modern retail has been waiting for.
WebAR: A New Form of Marketing
While webAR isn't exactly a new innovation, recent strides in its tracking and positioning accuracy, which narrowed the gap with app-based experiences, have propelled its popularity as a marketing tool. Led by 8th Wall, the webAR division of the augmented reality developer Niantic, along with other web-based frameworks like WebXR, a multitude of app-less AR experiences are transforming the way companies engage with users.
Leading brands like Coca-Cola, for instance, are already on board, leveraging webAR to host online music concerts to promote new products. Major theatrical releases like "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" used WebAR in promotional campaigns, while Disneyland Paris used it to provide previews of its attractions in AR. Companies have designed fun and engaging treasure hunts that reward users upon completion. For example, the popular online game Minecraft offered shoppers who completed the in-store AR treasure hunt with prizes and coupons for their toy products, while KFC rewarded their treasure-hunt participants with free chicken! The sports world are jumping on the bandwagon as well, with professional sports teams like the NHL’s Seattle Kraken making an interactive experience to engage with fans. And these are just a few of the marketing applications that major brands around the world have been utilizing with webAR.
Transforming the Consumer Experience
The shopping experience is becoming more virtual, with online stores being a go-to place for many consumers. Although shoppers have concerns about online shopping—such as preferring to try products in-store for size or wanting to see them first-hand—these issues are diminishing with the use of webAR tools designed to address these challenges.
In fairness, major brands have already been utilizing AR shopping experiences for many years. Companies like Lego already give shoppers a chance to see a preview of the different sets they offer in augmented reality with their AR app, while Ikea already gives consumers the ability to see how their furniture will look in their homes with their own app. But that’s the caveat—they require the downloading and the opening of a dedicated app. This is what makes webAR so valuable, as it spares consumers the time, effort, and any hesitation in their decision-making. All that's required is to simply scan a code.
Some retail brands have been quick to start adopting webAR as a tool for enhancing online sales. For instance, Nissan leveraged webAR to offer a virtual showroom on their website, letting you explore a model of their vehicle in various colors and customizable options. Bloomingdale’s integrated webAR showcasing of their products into their latest catalogs to elevate the consumer home shopping experience, resulting in a 22% higher conversion rate and a reported 38% uptick in customer engagement. Retail bag designer, Vanveer, has a website that not only allows visitors to see their products in AR space, but gives an additional option that allows the shoppers to create their own personalized bag using a webAR-based 3D model customization tool, which then they can view in AR. This adds a whole new dimension to online shopping!
Improving on What’s Out There
As the current leader in webAR technology, 8th Wall is feverishly developing better user experiences with webAR. They've been on a roll lately, too, achieving some key breakthroughs, such as integration of AI and something of particular interest for retail: AR hand-tracking. Although not yet fully refined, this webAR feature paves the way for retailers to showcase a range of hand and arm accessories directly on their websites, allowing shoppers to engage and interact with items like wristwatches, gloves, rings, and bracelets in augmented reality. However, the prospective value retailers can receive from this feature hinge on its quality of implementation, and while 8th Wall is a key player, they aren’t the only ones relied upon for a better experience.
This is where agencies that specialize in experiential tech, such as Intergalactic, come into play, fine-tuning these features to align seamlessly with specific products. Drawing on our expertise in webAR, Intergalactic is able to boost the accuracy of the hand tracking functionality, and create high-fidelity digital twins of the products, enhancing the shopping experience for a diverse range of retail brands. In fact, Intergalactic has already created such an experience utilizing 8th Wall’s hand-tracking functions, with accuracy and tracking that demonstrably improves upon 8th Wall’s current abilities. (See below)
WebAR Wristwatch & Ring
WebAR Animated Dragon Tattoo
An Ideal Tool for Advanced Analytics
For gathering consumer data for analytics, webAR offers real-time insights into user behavior, engagement metrics, and consumer preferences. Brands can use custom metrics to track how much time users spend interacting with specific experiences, know what specific parts of the experience are the most popular, and even identify tendencies users have when interacting with certain products. This real-time data provides brands with valuable insight into their customers and enables them to make quick adjustments for their campaigns.
An Exciting Time for Retail Brands
With the upcoming debut of Apple's Vision Pro and the growing popularity of other AR/VR headsets like the Meta Quest Pro, webAR is poised to become a dominant force on this evolving platform. With 360-degree AR capabilities that can captivate and engage users with products and marketing campaigns, companies will want to leverage webAR to offer these immersive experiences directly on their websites. Although this may still be a bit down the road due to current technical constraints with webAR, it's an exciting prospect for which businesses should begin preparing.
AR in general has been touted as the next big thing in the retail sector, as industry forecasts predict the global augmented reality market will soar to $61.3 billion by 2031. The driver for this acceleration in adoption will likely be webAR. AR is a paradigm shift in how consumers interact with brands and make purchasing decisions, and webAR is the catalyst to bring this experience mainstream. Without the need to download an app and any of the attached inconveniences, the barriers that might have discouraged consumers from embracing AR are quickly dissolving. And with that, it's becoming harder and harder for retailers to ignore the compelling case to adopt webAR to update their retail playbook.
Intergalactic's innovative projects, such as the Microsoft Minecraft AR experience, highlight our ability to develop unique, engaging experiences and solutions for diverse brands as a trusted innovative tech agency. Intergalactic's expertise in custom software development, digital twinning, 3D modeling and more enables us to tailor solutions that perfectly align with our clients' needs. If you are curious about the art of possible and unlocking opportunities with advanced technologies like webAR, reach out to our Global Innovation Director, Sarah Ennis sarah@intergalactic.com