How Brands Use Immersive Tech to Enhance the Shopping Experience
Being prepared for Immersive Technology in more and more aspects of digital experiences gives brands a significant edge when it comes to their digital marketing- especially with young audiences.
In the previous articles, we explained how these technologies offer substantial benefits and how virtual interactions and immersive tech can enhance the shopping experience and drive sales.
As the metaverse and immersive web become more prevalent, younger users from geeky millenials, to Gen Z and the 3D native Gen Alphas will essentially come to expect sophisticated 3D and virtual interactions and having a well-known and established virtual presence, like a flagship store for example as well as being prepared for the channels of the future will be crucial for maintaining competitiveness.
This article will finish the series with an overview of some successful real-world examples by big and small brands, that are experimenting or succesfully using the benefits of the Immersive Web and AR/VR Technology to improve their marketing and sales.
Use Cases
We will focus on the shopping experience, so the kind of experiences can be divided into to general categories, depending on the touchpoint the user encounters them:
Marketing and Engagement experiences are meant to delight and attract users, oftentimes to brick and mortat-stores,
while Retail experiences are also meant to delight, but rather represent a virtual store front or pop up store and are a digital point of sales so to speak.
Marketing and Engagement
19 Crimes: This wine brand uses the "Living Wine Labels" app, which brings the characters on their bottles to life through AR, sharing animated stories that enhance customer engagement and add an interactive element to the product experience.
Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola has implemented AR in marketing campaigns, allowing customers to scan products with their smartphones to unlock interactive experiences, games, and promotions.
McCain Foods: Partnering with Roblox, McCain Foods created the "Farms of the Future" game to educate users on sustainable farming practices, merging digital engagement with real-world sustainability.
Adidas: Adidas has used NFT collections and Snapchat AR try-ons to blend physical and digital shopping experiences, engaging customers through innovative digital marketing strategies.
Tomorrowland: This major EDM festival created a virtual experience using Epic’s Unreal Engine, selling over a million tickets and showcasing the potential of immersive virtual events.
Retail and Store Experiences
Evaa Ria: This luxury brand implemented a AR-enhanced virtual flagship store, allowing customers to visit their sore online, inspect and try on luxury bags virtually. This immersive approach has significantly enhanced the customer shopping experience, setting a new standard for ecommerce in luxury retail.
IKEA: The IKEA Place app uses AR to let customers visualize true-to-scale 3D models of furniture in their homes. This has significantly reduced return rates and boosted sales by helping customers make informed purchase decisions.
Sephora: The Sephora Virtual Artist app offers virtual makeup try-ons, increasing customer engagement and driving sales by providing an interactive and accurate way to explore products.
Burberry: Burberry's AR pop-up stores promoted their Olympia handbag collection, using immersive experiences to engage customers and drive traffic to physical stores.
Alibaba’s Tmall Luxury Pavilion: This platform integrates AR and VR to enhance luxury shopping, with brands like Cartier and Burberry using it for virtual try-ons and interactive experiences that boost customer engagement and sales.
Conclusion
It is easy to see, that Immersive technology is transforming the shopping landscape as brands adapt to the possibilities, starting with advertising, branding and the engagement of customers via new channels, to enhancing product visualization, personalizing shopping journeys, and increasing customer engagement during the shopping process.
As these technologies continue to evolve, they promise to further revolutionize the digital shopping experience, making it more interactive, enjoyable, and efficient. Brands that embrace these innovations will not only improve their sales and customer satisfaction but also position themselves as leaders in the ever-competitive market.
At Ravespace.io we are at the forefront of exploring these new technological and creative possibillities for big brands, artists, agencies and forward thinking companies alike.
Contact us if you have any questions or book a demo if you are curious about our work and process.
