Ever thought how awesome it would be if we can skip standing in those long try-on queues? OR miss finding a place to sit in a busy store to try your favorite shoes for the first pick? OR maybe to discover a location before actually visiting it physically? Yeah, shopping with AR/VR technologies is possible! The next big trend in the retail sector is probably AR/VR. Retail firms should also think about introducing these innovations for such a large potential market.
How shopping with AR/VR is possible?
For any retail business, “Customer is the King” is the first and foremost concept. Therefore, there are two reasons why AR/VR is now necessary for the retail business. Shopping with AR/VR is now necessary for a memorable consumer shopping trip and addresses an underlying retail industry issue.
- Customer Experience– The key to making any customer happy on a shopping trip is to have an enriching experience. Who doesn’t want to have a virtual try-on, sitting in their comfort zone at home? With the facilities from AR/VR, this is actually possible. Using these, a user may do a virtual try-on in a period of a few minutes and skip the wait entirely. These technologies will potentially assist the company in unpredictable ways, rather than delivering a memorable customer experience.
- Customer Engagement- To engage a client, AR, and VR is an excellent combination of technologies. Imagine, you’re going to enter the mall, and you need to visit a popular fashion store. What are you going to do? The first instincts are searching for signboards or ask someone about all the brands on different floors. You’ve got it right on your mobile, open an app, type the store name, and follow the footsteps.
- Customer Satisfaction- For a successful retail business, this is one of the most critical factors. Sometimes, a memorable happy experience leads to a happier client. AR/VR technologies are likely to provide the client with an enriching experience that significantly improves customer satisfaction. This technology intends to make things unforgettable and straightforward for consumers. It is also likely to have the upper hand in leading to happy business customers.
- Customer Awareness-After onboarding the customer, customer engagement, and interactivity are appropriate, but it is also essential to attract. It is possible to use these AR/VR technologies extensively as marketing tools to spread awareness of a product. If one can interact with a virtual product and see all product features and benefits. It will not be beneficial to spread awareness of the product and attract a buyer, contributing to enhanced sales figures.
- Customer Retention-As it is necessary to attract a consumer to purchase a product, maintaining an existing customer is entirely imperative in the same way. A satisfied customer is a returning customer. Yeah, these solutions serve the purpose of consumer interaction and interactivity. Shopping with AV/VR gives the customer a memorable experience and bidding goodbye to a happy sale and increased customer return opportunities. It, therefore, contributes to higher profits for the company.
Present Situation: Pandemic and Post Benefits
Concerning the current pandemic scenario, being digitally and technologically active is imperative. This pandemic has shown us the crucial role that technology has to play in providing several advantages.
Benefits for the Organization:
- Marketing- In most industries, the retail business is all about the “Try and choose” idea. The use of these innovations will promote product/service interaction and wide-spread product scope. Spreading awareness of retail products/services in this way.
- Sales- A customer has several decisions to make in the retail sector, leading to delayed decision-making. These AR/VR innovations, known for their immersive and engaging characteristics, respond to the rapid speed of this decision-making. It leads to more significant interaction and faster decision-making for consumers, leading to more sales numbers. It is also likely to sell a product to a satisfied consumer with dedication, thereby increasing the likelihood of returning customers.
- Cost Reduction- It is the one-time investment expense of the hardware for these technologies in most cases. Just refresh the product/service line in the CMS later. In the long run, poor Opex Cost outcomes have been shown.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are countless reasons why businesses worldwide are embracing these AR/VR innovations. Firstly, looking at the long-term advantages of having them in the system and secondly, having a competitive advantage on the market. The wait to implement these will be over now since there is no doubt of the fact that shopping with AR/VR is Retail’s future.
