The First AR Christmas
[NOTE: This is an extract from my AR Business World (ARBW) newsletter. To subscribe just click here. ]
Check out the clip above. Is this what will come to your child’s mind, when they hear songs about to beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Will kids in the near future dance with a virtual Santa as we see in the clip above or will most still want to sit on the old man’s lap near where merchants have put toys in every store.
In fact will those toys just sit on the shelf, or will they do things when you child passes by, such as an AR doll hat gives your daughter a haptic hug, or a toy flying saucer, that sports aliens who zap in the direction of passing kids.
I don’t believe that AR will dominate this holiday season just yet, but by next year, brands and merchants will make it very central to the holiday shopping experience. And enough will happen in consumer-facing environments this year, that will lead most merchants and brands wishing to survive the great AR transformation will understand this as they reflect on their holiday revenues at year end.
First there are the numbers. IDC predicts that by 2121 AR/VR retail will be a $422 million industry, primarily with immersive technology being used to showcase products. I don’t have many bean-counting credentials, but I believe that IDC is off by billions of dollars. Yes, right now, AR in retail is all about showcasing products, but by next year retail will already be used by brands and merchants for recruiting, data visualization,training, logistics and marketing.
Smart merchants and brand are already in position to give customers superior experiences in product showcasing to confirm IDC’s focus.. A few of my favorite examples:
- Sephora is selling beauty products online and in stores using an AR mobile app.The user tries on eye shadow or lipstick virtually, and then can click to buy a product either in a store or while riding on a subway car.
- Lowe’s uses Google’s Tango AR technology to make it easier to redesign kitchen or bathroom. This may not be a just-in-time for Christmas item, but it gives you some sense of how Lowe’s is trying to get a step ahead of arch rivals like Home Depot.
- If you are thinking of giving someone you love a Porsche this Christmas, because the Tesla Model 3 orders are still backed up. This AR display may help you choose color and model in a new and useful way.
Already, first movers are finding company in the form of competitors.
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Sephora launched its program in 2014, but this year L’Oreal came into AR retailing in a big way. Porsche, may not have been first automaker to use AR product showcasing. Acura arrived at about the same time and is showing a good deal of innovation by igniting an AR car race of Facebook.
And there’s a lot happening in the retail that IDC either overlooked or is counting in some other way. For example:
- Walmart has begun training 140,000 mid-level employees on how to deal with in-store shopping situations by using VR headsets and STRIVR software. I will be discussing this next week in my next AR Business World (ARBW).
- Aisle 411 is one of several internal mapping mobile app providers. It uses AR to guide mall shoppers to any item they want among hundreds of thousands of items displayed by showing augmented arrows on the floor steering them to the desired item. I am told that in its next phase, virtual celebrities will stroll with 411 users to the item, suggesting some accessories to go with the blue jeans being sought.
I’m not certain what innovations like this are classified as in IDC projections, but I am certain that AR will keep providing new tools that will enhance shopper experiences, and in the Armageddon between physical and online merchants, enhanced experience is the key issue, whether it is an easier way to find a product or a better way to delight a kid at Christmas.
Big Bang
But all of this is still early stuff. In terms of AR Retail evolution, the technology is still just crawling out of the evolutionary swamp. But it is all about to explode with one mighty Big Bang, or so my business partner Robert Scoble and I theorize.
As I reported in a previous ARBW issue. just a few weeks, Apple will launch a new iPhone and operating system which works in iPhone 6 models and newer, meaning there will be over a half billion shoppers this Christmas carrying around AR-capable iPhones. They may not come to your sites, apps, stores or malls expecting an AR experience just yet, but some merchants, this Christmas, will be smart enough to surprise and delight them with AR.
Other brands, may elect to sit and wait and watch. In my view this will turn out badly. We are talking about the dawn of a new era in retailing and those who are the first to provide new experiences, particularly for younger shoppers are those who will gain leadership positions.
They will also gain media attention. If you are the news director at a hometown TV channel, would you send the crew out to show footage of kids on Santa’s lap, or would you send them out to show virtual Santa bopping with kids to a modern holiday song?
If you really, really want to stay in from of what will be a very large pack in a very short period of time, I would warn you that you have a mere 16 weeks to go before Christmas, just time enough to find a good developer for a clever, inexpensive ARKit app, that can be used by most iPhone users everywhere.
