Sergey Karshkov, co-founder of the 9 Pandas advertising agency, benefits from extensive experience of the marketing industry. He places a special focus on keeping abreast of the latest industry trends, particularly developments in the realm of digital marketing technology. This article will look at digital overlay technology and how it is being implemented by businesses operating in a variety of different industries today.
The retail landscape is undeniably evolving in line with the ever-changing needs of modern consumers. With this adaptation have come inevitable technological developments that intersect with the behaviours and interests of younger generations. One of these innovations is the ‘virtual try-on’, or VTO, which not only has revolutionary potential in ecommerce but is increasingly permeating the world of physical retail too.
VTO enables consumers to try on clothing, cosmetics, accessories and jewellery virtually, usually by utilising a smartphone camera function. The process relies on augmented reality (AR) technology, enabling consumers to view items as a digitally-generated overlay placed on top of a real world image.
Platforms like Snapchat and Instagram have been implementing VTO for several years now in the form of lenses and filters. While both companies have worked with retailers and brands on bringing VTO to consumers, emerging tech firms are proliferating and disrupting the arena, bringing to the plate specialised VTO solutions designed to drive consumer engagement and purchasing.
Take for example Perfect Corp, a New York Stock Exchange-listed company that provides beauty and fashion retailers with AR try-on solutions to integrate into their ecommerce platforms. Since its launch in 2015 the company has worked with more than 500 brands, implementing AR and virtual reality (VR) products – resulting in a higher conversion rate for its customers. With its origins in the cosmetics industry – facilitating virtual makeup try-ons and foundation colour-matching services – the company has diversified, introducing VTO options for watches and jewellery products, enabling consumers to virtually try on products without even leaving their homes.
To appeal to a new breed of digitally native shoppers, retailers are increasingly turning to AR and other emerging technologies to enrich the relationship between brand and consumer. With almost 75% of the global population and all smartphone users predicted to be frequently using AR by 2025 according to statistics shared by Shopify, brands are looking for innovative ways to elevate customer experiences – unlocking new ways for customers to interact with products and bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds. Many retailers are leveraging AR technology to create immersive shopping experiences that increase customer education, drive engagement and pique curiosity amongst shoppers.
Since the pandemic, consumers have become increasingly accustomed to shopping online. AR technologies facilitate contactless shopping experiences, eliminating the need for shoppers to physically interact with products and saving them money, time and effort by enabling them to evaluate realistic representations of products shown from different angles. AR is rapidly becoming the engagement method of choice for marketers in terms of product discovery and category exploration. After all, a label can only go so far in terms of conveying product and brand information, while AR boasts the power to tap into a wealth of digital information, turning products into an overlay and bringing them to life.
For luxury consumers, the inspiration phase of the decision to purchase has become increasingly important, according to Burberry. The luxury clothing brand highlights the power of AR to create more exciting experiences and enhance personalised luxury commerce. Burberry recently launched its own AR shopping tool, enabling customers to utilise Google Search on their smartphone to search for Burberry items and see AR versions of products at scale against real-life products. Burberry points out that in simulating the instore experience, it helps people to gain a better understanding of items before they buy.
The benefits of digital overlay technology are not restricted to the retail industry. The US National Library of Medicine recently published a paper exploring the potential of digital overlay-based learning modules in clinical settings. In addition, digital overlay applications also have huge potential in the education sector, creating scope for the development of digital overlay learning systems that make learning more interactive, immersive and fun.
One realm in which digital overlay shows huge potential is in the world of advertising. In April 2018, Paris Saint-Germain became one of the first European sports clubs to implement digital overlay technology at its home ground, Parc des Princes. The system, which was the first of its kind on French soil, enabled the club to geolocate advertising displayed on LED screens surrounding the pitch, adapting messaging to fit the audience of international broadcasters and enabling club partners to broadcast messages in a variety of different languages to be shared in their respective countries.
With Paris Saint-Germain Ligue 1 matches broadcast to an average audience of 3 million viewers per match spread across 54 separate countries, the potential benefits of digital overlay technology are vast from an advertising perspective.For news and updates from Sergey Karshkov, visit his website: https://sergeykarshkov.com