In our latest blog content, we have mentioned how pandemic circumstances affect customer behaviors to shift through digital channels. As shopping is increasingly moving online, brands are looking forward to providing a more holistic user experience on their digital channels and virtual try-on technology enables customers to try out a product in the safest way without even leaving the house. While physical stores are also re-opening, hygiene and safety rules have become the biggest priority for customers. Nobody wants to touch anything unnecessarily. So brands are also discovering in-store virtual try-on solutions for their customers to feel comfortable like Sephora’s Virtual Artist AR tool. We can see that virtual try-on experiences have started to take a more essential place.
Let’s take a look at the 5 industries that can benefit the Virtual Try-On technology solutions during COVID-19 conditions:
Cosmetics
Augmented Reality beauty apps have been helping to make shopping much easier by allowing shoppers to try cosmetics virtually, often without a need to step into a real store. When the Covid-19 hit, this behavior change in beauty shopping has accelerated. That’s driven many in the industry to explore how technologies like AR can fill the gap without the need for customers to leave their homes.
Ukonwa Ojo, MAC Cosmetics global CMO, mentions “it’s the digital-first brands that are best positioned to win in this new environment, which requires us to find new ways to virtually connect with consumers while they are socially distancing at home.”
Also, another important point that beauty companies are changing their strategies to survive in this new market. In an interview of L’Oreal India Managing Director, Amit Jain, says that as a result of the market impact and changing consumer habits of the pandemic, the firm’s CEO had set a global mission for the brand to “evolve from a beauty to a beauty technology company.”
It is for sure that plenty of cosmetics brands are adapting to COVID-19 conditions by giving the opportunity of virtually trying thousands of lip, skin, and even hair colors easily to their customers.
Fashion
The fashion industry could have had hard times since in-store experiences have become very limited with all the restrictions without a doubt, and trying out a piece might be the indispensable part of fashion shopping. However, many fashion companies from mid-class to top luxury brands also adapted very quickly to the digital environment to increase sales and e-commerce numbers boosted! From shoe trying to t-shirts and hats plenty of brands integrated AR technology into their digital sales experience somehow. Nike Fit app is designed to scan the foot of a user by using AR technology and allows customers to find the right shoe size and visualize how the item will look on the customer. No more trying out in a physical store to finding the right size or returning the wrong size of pairs that you ordered online!
Nail Polish
Choosing the perfect color for a nail polish is both the most fun and the most difficult part of shopping, since customers concern about how given shades might look on their own nails, skin tones, or outfit. With the next-gen Augmented Reality virtual try-on tech, Sally Hansen is transforming the shopping experience with its mobile app. Customers can try-on over 200 nail polish shades in real-time, on their nails. A simple scan of the user’s hand from their smartphone enables them to try-on their own color choices in real-time before buying. The app also generates personalized skin-tone color suggestions by analyzing the pigments in each user’s hand, then matches with existing colors.
Optics
Another industry that has adapted virtual try-on tech is optics, since trying out a model is very crucial before buying glasses. Virtual try-on tech also enables customers to try out endless glasses and sunglasses models through their smartphone cameras. Famous fashion brand, Michael Kors, used Facebook’s AR ads feature to help their customers to decide and engage to boost sales. Users can basically click the ads’ “tap to try it on” button to try out a pair of Michael Kors sunglasses on their faces. Then users are directed straight to a page to purchase the sunglasses directly in the Facebook app.
Jewelry
Virtual try-on also offers a great way to try a pair of earrings, a necklace, or even a diamond ring! Helzberg Diamonds has introduced the Helzberg Virtual Ring Experience, which modernizes the diamond-buying experience by AR technology for their exclusive customers. These concept stores offer technology both online and in-store that give customers a chance to virtually experience over 100 ring styles on their hands.
