Guest Column | September 19, 2019

The Future Of Retail Markets: Augmented Reality

By Anastasia Stefanuk, Mobilunity

Field Service Augmented reality AR

Technology is changing the landscape of retail market drastically as it does in all other domains of businesses. It was highlighted in the takeaways of Retail Now 2019 conference that the point of sale (POS), mobile apps, and the software-powered technological ecosystem is impacting the retail markets significantly worldwide.

Newer retail business trends powered by Augmented Reality AR are creating a remarkable competitive edge in the retail market. Unity OpenCV engineers play a vital role in AR-powered retail. The demand to hire OpenCV engineers for catering to the increased need for the Augmented Reality (AR) has already begun in the retail market. The contemporary retail businesses use AR extensively in retail sales through AR-powered mobile apps nowadays. This creates a great user experience and reduces the cost of store employees.  

Augmented Reality In Existing Retail Markets

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that creates the virtual environment in which two different environments are merged to look like a one combined environment. By the virtue of the Augmented Reality technology, you can scan your environment, items, or even body through any retail mobile app and check the related items that perfectly fit in your scanned environment. OpenCV developers and OpenCV Java face recognition engineers make this possible on the technological front. Mostly, they do it through the OpenCV based projects accomplished with a remote development team.

In the present retail market, numerous retail stores are using AR-powered applications to create a great user experience and decrease the on-store staff. For example, Ikea, Locaste, Converse, American Apparel, and many other retail stores are using AR-powered apps to check the items through the app. By using AR-powered apps you can scan your drawing room and check the suitable furniture that is 100 percent matching to space. You can scan your feet and choose the right shoes available in the store by trying shoes remotely from home. You can do it for the clothes and other items too. You feel that you are trying at the store.

The latest research report reveals that more than 73 percent of the shoppers want to use multichannel for retail shopping and about 20 percent of the shoppers want to shop online only. This is a clear indication that you need multi-channel experience for the customers. The AR helps you create a great experience in the integrated shopping channel environments by integrating POS, QR payments, facial recognition for logins and much more.

How Will It Impact On The Future Of Retail Markets?

According to the latest report in Forbes suggest that more than 69 percent of online shoppers want the companies to create AR-powered mobile apps within the next 6 months. A whopping majority of 61 percent of the shoppers prefer to shop from the stores that have AR-powered mobile apps. This is a very clear customer behavior that is going to force the retailers to shift to the AR-powered platforms as soon as possible. The IT outsourcing of OpenCV motion detection Java engineers for the remote web development of apps and websites will be the best solution for materializing the power of AR technology.

This is just a single shopper's perspective. You also can see the great opportunities created by the AR technology from the retailers' perspective too. For example, as much as 30 percent of the online orders are returned in the U.K. for the reason that customer is not satisfied with the product. This depletes the profit margin of the retailers. In the future, AR-powered apps will reduce this ratio significantly. The AR-powered applications can help the customers choose the right product because it supports the try-before-you-buy principle.

The user experience will become a big challenge for retailers in the future. Augmented Reality (AR) technology can help retailers improve the in-store shopping experience by adding the 3D superimposing of the space and bodies on the images of required products. Thus, the future of retail markets will be dominated by Augmented Reality. The integrated shopping experience through apps, QR, and POS powered by AR technology will be the next step for the retail businesses. OpenCV facial recognition engineer will play a pivotal role in the future of retail markets.

 What Are The Major Benefits Of Augmented Reality?

Augmented Reality is going to play a very vital role in the prospects of retail markets worldwide. There are many great reasons for the promising future of AR technology. Let’s discuss a few of those benefits of AR technology.

#1 Great User Experience

AR technology creates a great user experience by providing the in-store experience irrespective of the location of the customer. Customers use AR-powered applications to superimpose the product on the desired area or body parts what the products are desired for and find out the accurate choice that suits the requirements of the customer.

#2 Reduced Operational Cost

With the efficient use of AR technology in mobile apps and the integrated shopping system can reduce the retail store operational cost significantly. As mentioned earlier, more than 30 percent of the products are returned in normal conditions, which cost hugely on the retail stores. An AR-powered decision will reduce the product return ratio significantly. The number of in-store employees will reduce with the implementation of AR technology. AR technology-based apps will help the customers much better way than an in-store employee can help him/her.

#3 Collection Of Customer Behavior Info

With the help of AR technology, the retailers can get more detailed information about the choices, interests, size, and other kinds of information, which can be better utilized for increasing customer engagement and loyalty. The future of the retail market will rely on better business intelligence. AR will help you collect the right business information, which can help the retail stores create a competitive edge over their competitors.

#4 Improved Personalized Product Ordering

AR technology will help the customers to order personalized products more easily. An AR-powered mobile app can easily take the personalized order by taking the right and accurate choice of the customer. This increases the customer experience, satisfaction, and productivity of retail stores.

Final Takeaway

The technology-based online retail market is growing very fast worldwide. Augmented Reality is playing a vital role in the present, and it is going to leave an unprecedented impact on the future of the retail markets. AR offers great benefits to online retailers as well as to the online shoppers to create a great experience and increase customer satisfaction. A few major benefits that will determine the future course of retail markets are discussed at length in this article.