Snap Inc. has recently unveiled a new product line specifically tailored for businesses. This will allow companies to leverage the augmented reality technology used in popular filter and lenses to impart AR capabilities on their own web & mobile applications. With this initiative, customers can virtually try on clothing, shoes & accessories from a retailer’s website before making their purchase. Snap has already been capitalizing on this trend by selling virtual try-on ads via their app; an idea that became more popular with the closure of physical retail stores due to the pandemic. Our company is now offering AR Enterprise Services (ARES) to help customers use this technology on their own website. This will enable them to take advantage of the latest advancements and make their site even more impressive.
Jill Popelka, Head of AR Enterprise Services at Snap, expressed her faith in the AR tools provided by the company, claiming that it will help shoppers to be more confident in their purchasing decisions. Numerous young Snapchat users have relied on their app to virtually try on clothing, cosmetics or footwear before making a purchase. This trend has seen a surge since the start of 2021, with over 250 million people using Snapchat’s Augmented Reality (AR) Shopping Lenses around 5 billion times.
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Snap has been investing heavily in their Augmented Reality technology for some time now, but in the wake of slumping digital ad revenues and tightening budgets, they’ll have to demonstrate that it’s worth every penny. Marketers are facing heightened pressure to invest their money wisely in places that can be seen and tracked, such as driving more sales or obtaining more email subscriptions. This ensures the return on investment is visible right away.
Snap’s new product called Shopping Suite is designed to assist retailers in generating 2D and 3D models of their products, storing the digital files & enabling AR experiences on their sites. The launch will focus on fashion & clothing retailers first, followed by home & beauty companies afterward. Shopping Suite has been trialled by an array of customers, such as Goodr, Princess Polly and Gobi Cashmere. According to Snap, these companies have experienced higher conversions and lower returns of items since deploying this platform.
Luxury brands like Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton have been reluctant to adopt the use of AR technology due to the low quality 3D images of their products, according to Popelka. Snap is confident that their technology has already addressed issues like glare on sunglasses or texture of footwear, thus providing a much more accurate picture. Retailers should feel secure knowing that they can trust in Snap’s capabilities.
Snap is going through a major transition; the company has let go of 20% of its personnel and omitted projects that showed no promise in terms of driving income, user base or AR activities. Snap has recently introduced a subscription-based model that charges customers a fixed fee each month. This could greatly help to offset any potential reduction in advertising income.
