As augmented reality (AR) adoption continues to grow so do the use cases. Online retail saw some early adoptions such a Nike using the tech to sell limited-edition sneakers but it has mainly been limited to big global companies. To make it easier for more eCommerce businesses to employ AR, London Dynamics has announced its new AR platform.
In a keynote presentation to attendees of Retail Without Borders London Dynamics CEO and President, Michael Valdsgaard unveiled the new venture, to provide a high-tech immersive commerce solution to increase sales for brands by enhancing the way consumers interact with products digitally.
“We are bringing online shopping back into the physical world by enabling that long-awaited augmented reality revolution,” said Valdsgaard during the keynote. “The evidence of massive disruption buffeting retailers in the UK can’t be denied. The Office of National Statistics reported that as much as 21 per cent of retail sales were made online in December 2019, an increase of six per cent, while over 10 thousand in-store retail jobs were cut in the first weeks of 2020 alone.”
As the former head of digital transformation at IKEA, Valdsgaard helped the retailer adopt AR into its own app several years ago, seeing the potential of the technology. London Dynamics’ platform can create AR integrations for products from wearables to furniture, developing solutions which are platform agnostic and available to everyone.
“With London Dynamics, I want retailers and brands to have an accessible, ‘plug and play’ solution for AR; allowing their customers to make better purchase decisions and convert sales by adding a physical experience to online shopping,” said Valdsgaard. “Without a shadow of a doubt, AR has the potential to entirely overturn the way we look for, buy, and sell things online.”
With AR built into a mobile shopping app, you can not only spin the item around to see it from all angles, but you can also place a piece of furniture in a room or even view a watch on your wrist, helping dispense uncertainties and reducing the hassle of returning items which aren’t quite as expected.
“Lasting change isn’t coming for retail, it’s already here, and AR has similarly arrived to offer a new and powerful way to respond to changing customer demographics and demands.” VRFocus will continue its coverage of the latest AR developments as they happen.