With the metaverse expected to generate up to $5 trillion in value by 2030, you need a strategy to navigate this new frontier of customer engagement. Businesses that move early will capitalise on growing demand and engage customers, earning their loyalty, rather than playing catchup once it’s more established. Check out our newly launched range of services:
Creative and strategic AR & VR solutions
How can your business use AR?
Virtual and augmented reality – collectively referred to as extended reality (XR) – are new ways of connecting technology with our surroundings. Businesses are already seeing the benefits of exploring this technology, and many have begun to incorporate it into their operations. We are not only talking about large organisations; XR can be affordable, and has been used by companies of different sizes to boost their business.
The benefits of XR technology include:
- Increase visitor dwell time
- Reduce customer attrition due to doubts about suitability of your products
- Provide an interactive format to educate visitors
- Enhance the online buying experience
- (Pleasantly) surprise long-time customers
- Attract new customers – especially early adopters
- Demonstrate to clients that you’re at the forefront of your market
Which industries use augmented reality today?
AR is a potent tool that can be applied in a number of ways, such as employee training, product sales, or providing consumers with a more engaging experience. You may find AR applied to a variety of fields, including retail, hospitality, finance, sports, and even professional services. The opportunities for businesses to set themselves apart from the competition are limitless!
Let’s have a look at some examples of how businesses are using augmented reality:
Professional Services
Consultancy firm, KPMG, uses AR to train employees on health and safety procedures in offices. The AR apps are programmed to guide employees in case of emergencies, and provide general information for employee wellbeing as they move around the premises.
Furniture Retail
Whether you want to buy online or in store, the IKEA app offers advantages to its users, allowing them to see their products within their own homes, using augmented reality. Customers can select anything from the store’s catalogue and see how it will look to scale in their house.
Education
Medical students can use Microsoft HoloLens technology to learn about the human body using mixed reality. Students and clinicians can flow through the bloodstream, isolate, enlarge, and even walk inside the parts of the human body.
Makeup & Beauty
Think of an app that works like a Snapchat filter, but allows users to try on beauty products. The L’Oreal Makeup app featured on Maybelline.com identifies a user’s face and then virtually shows what they would look like with a certain shade or colour of a specific product.
Tourism
Both AR and VR have been used by tourism boards, hospitality providers, and tourist venues to enhance the travel experience with features such as virtual walkthroughs of hotels, augmented reality tours, and XR information points triggered by proximity or QR codes in places such as museums.
Clothing
Amazon Try-on technology uses augmented reality to virtually fit shoes onto users’ feet. It enables users to see exactly what shoes would look like on them. This way you can visualize the size, fit, and cut of each apparel before you pay.
Next-level marketing with AR
New technology is often the solution for brands that want to take their marketing to the next level or set themselves apart from competitors. Identifying customer pain points can guide brands on the creation of immersive experiences that engage customers and solve these problems, making them feel as though they are a part of the action, while focusing on the product or service.
The choice of VR and/or AR solution will depend on the business objectives and what you want to achieve. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
At AccuraCast, we aim to help you grow your business by providing strategy consulting and guided implementation for best-in-class XR services, so you can keep up with the rapid pace of digital transformation.
About the Author
Jennifer is a digital marketing consultant at AccuraCast.
