Augmented Reality: The Future of E-commerce
Every minute of the day, Silicon Valley is buzzing. Future-oriented, determined, simply unstoppable: the progress is happening and its icon is augmented reality (AR).
It can be defined as the live view of a real environment, in which the elements are augmented through the usage of a computer-generated input. Through this, we can experience the reality from a completely different perspective. We can perceive it not only with our five senses, but with the help of technology. An example of this process is Pokémon GO, the AR game that has become viral in the 2016.
It can be downloaded on our smartphone and it allows us to go around the city (paying attention to not cross the street while playing with it, as the app warns you), finding Pokémon, Pokéstop and Gyms, where it is possible to fight against every other Pokémon owner. The AR permits us to see streets, monuments, buildings and everything that is around us (Pokémon included, of course).
Even though we may consider this app a childish and useless game, just take a step back and observe the whole process. Moreover, try to apply it, for example to e-commerce.
Business Application
Imagine the possibility to enter in an e-shop and actually see and touch the product you are about to purchase, from furniture to clothes, from mobile phones to car accessories. Everything can be analysed as the process has been taking place in the real shop.
IKEA, the world-wide Swedish furniture company, is one of the companies that is taking advantage of AR, allowing customers to play with the catalogue and to actually furnish their home or office with the preferred pieces of furniture. In this way, the customer can have an idea about how the product fits with the new environment.
Personally speaking, I had the opportunity to visit an AR company called Meta (www.metavision.com), while I was travelling around California and it definitely blew my mind. This startup is designing new AR-based products, such as the glasses that allow you to experience the world in a literally augmented way. On the website, they pointed out the main difference between virtual and augmented reality, where the connection with reality continues, independently from the glasses, but with a little step further into the 3D world.
The opportunities for a practical approach in business are endless, so why don’t we get to know a little bit more about all of this?
On the 18th and 19th of October, Berlin will host the Augmented World Expo 2016, where everyone can discover more about the future of technology and its application on present opportunities.
