Virtual Try-ons are a game changer, but….

There has been a period of hype surrounding virtual try-ons, with brands like L’Oreal, Tiffany & Co and more recently Amazon, who has been creating AR versions of their products for consumers to experiment with on the Amazon mobile application.

But how have virtual try-ons aided brand awareness and customer experiences?

• Allowing for new ways to interact with products. Customers can make informed decisions due to a better understanding of the product which can reduce product return rates for the brand.

• Enhancing the ecommerce experience. This can lead to overall brand satisfaction, contributing to growth of customer loyalty in future.

• Boosting sales. Brands can utilize the technology to collect information that can generate product recommendations tailored to each costumer, ensuring that the items they come across are of interest to them.

Virtual try-on features, although beneficial, do possess some inaccuracies:

• The size of the product does not always fit the person trying them on, hence, it may impact the purchase and the user experience.

• Issues with movement tracking for clothing products can feel too unnatural, with physics and realism of some items creating unrealistic visuals that don’t aid the experience at all.

• Simulation of natural lighting since shadows and shading are not always accurate for every item on the virtual-try on catalogue.

Despite this, new developments in AR tools are being made to improve on these issues, with mobile features like body scan providing accurate size-guides for the user.

The technology used for these try-ons is still evolving, and so is the creativity of developing new ways to get customers engaged with the product. We can only observe how virtual try-ons will continue to deliver new experiences from here.