Introduction to Augmented Reality in Commerce
The use of augmented reality (AR) to spice up commerce and payments has gained significant attention in recent times, due to moves from major players like PayPal and Target. Although the technology remains to be in its early stages, with more ideas and demonstrations than real-world applications, the paths to an augmented reality future have gotten clearer.
How Augmented Reality is Being Used
The revival of PayPal’s patent for payment-enabled augmented reality glasses has sparked interest in how close this technology is to becoming mainstream. The software described within the patent would allow consumers to access product and buying data just by taking a look at an item on a store shelf. They could store their payment information with the PayPal system and buy items from vendors directly. While there is no indication that PayPal plans to introduce these glasses anytime soon, the marketplace for augmented reality in retail is coming together. For instance, Goldman Sachs estimates that augmented reality will drive $1.6 billion in retail annually by 2025, fueled by the shopping habits of tens of millions of consumers.
Retail Applications
Not all augmented reality projects can have a direct link to payments, at the least not immediately. However, they may help train shoppers to make use of a type of shopping that mixes the digital and physical worlds. Target’s partnership with Perfect Corp.’s YouCam Makeup app to develop the Target Beauty Studio is a chief example. This studio will enable customers to virtually try on different makeup products via a digital screen in at the least 10 stores. Human beauty experts will still be employed contained in the stores to offer personalized advice.
Financial Institutions and Augmented Reality
The potential of augmented reality has also caught the eye of economic institutions like Mastercard. Mastercard has used Masterpass, mobile technology, and iris recognition to create a "shopping experience" that relies on photorealistic augmented reality, providing consumers with a customized and secure shopping experience. Additionally, the National Bank of Oman has created a nationwide method for users to locate their nearest bank branch or ATM using augmented reality, which fits a way in negating the view of bank branches as defunct.
The Future of Augmented Reality in Commerce
The way forward for augmented reality in tasks related to commerce and payments will involve voice assistant technologies, in line with a recent Juniper report. These systems will turn out to be the first approach to controlling head-mounted AR devices. Commands through voice assistants would require minimal data, but including the required hardware may remain a problem. Juniper also anticipates that mobile apps will represent a lucrative area for augmented reality, with mobile AR games representing a big percentage of all installed mobile applications by 2022.
Mobile Apps and Augmented Reality
Mobile apps will play a big role within the near way forward for augmented reality, especially within the gaming sector. The primary value of the AR games market will come from pay-per-download monetization and in-app purchases, with little variation across regions. Search might be the most well-liked category of mobile AR apps within the short and medium term. Furthermore, AR allows major brands to geotag any physical objects, starting from their high street stores to physical promoting resembling billboards. This means a consumer could view a passer-by wearing geotagged clothing, read information in regards to the brand through the camera viewfinder, click through onto that brand’s website, and buy the identical item.
Conclusion
Augmented reality has a technique to go before it becomes a day by day a part of consumer life. However, the interest of enormous players within the payments and retail industries can’t be ignored. As technology advances and more applications are developed, we are able to expect to see augmented reality play a more significant role in commerce and payments. The potential for augmented reality to rework the shopping experience, make payments more convenient, and supply recent ways for brands to interact with consumers is vast. As the technology continues to evolve, it’ll be exciting to see the way it shapes the long run of commerce and payments.
