Introduction to Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) has grow to be a serious player within the B2B sales space, especially for forward-thinking corporations willing to push latest technological boundaries. The technology has evolved rapidly since its mainstream emergence with the explosion of Pokémon GO, and has already made an impact in our every day consumer activities. The foundation of this movement lies within the maturing of the underlying software and hardware technology platforms used to develop and deploy AR applications.
The Role of Apple ARKit and Google ARCore
The release of Apple ARKit and Google ARCore has helped in expanding the event of recent applications and domains exploring the usage of AR. Both Apple ARKit and Google ARCore are the now-ubiquitous tools for development, each making it easier to push AR apps onto their respective platforms. This combination widely facilitates the viewing of AR amongst the hand held device audience for each tablets and smartphones.
Applied AR: Moving from Novelty to Value-Add
The challenge now’s to begin moving AR technology from novelty towards a technology that may offer real and tangible value across a broader range of markets outside of gaming. The real explosion of AR value and exposure is going on today in retail and consumer applications. Major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and IKEA, and product corporations like Nike have all made significant investments in consumer AR applications.
Expectations and Adoption
Almost 70% of consumers expect retailers to launch an AR app inside the subsequent six months. Despite this, nearly two-thirds of corporations don’t use AR in any respect. This trend might want to change and shall be led by early adopters and visionary market leaders. Walmart’s e-commerce team has already deeply invested in a spread of AR applications for product design, sales, marketing, and training.
How AR Will Drive Massive Value in B2B Sales
We’re already seeing early indications of retail expectations starting to influence the B2B market and customers expecting to have the identical experiences they’ve of their day-to-day retail life. Regarding the actual value of augmented reality, it’s becoming clear that B2B environments may, in reality, see more accurate applications of this technology in addition to much larger tangible and realized value.
The Rise of the Digital Twin
In the commercial and manufacturing space, innovators have recently introduced the concept of a “digital twin,” exploring the worth of making a digital version of a product that may be designed, re-designed, and virtually “poked and prodded” within the sales process at a fraction of the fee of making the physical product. This concept becomes incredibly accessible to a broader audience of prospective customers.
Benefits of the Digital Twin
The idea of using a ‘digital-twin’ to create a virtual sales experience, not only increases the reach and speed to corporations and customers but can even tangibly decrease costs of the sales process. Creating an immersive sales experience in augmented reality will take this one other step to place the digital product right into a physical environment that facilitates a greater B2B experience.
The Future of AR in B2B Sales
Imagine the facility of seeing a tractor in a construction site, a conveyor layout in a plant, or medical equipment arranged to slot in an operating room. This ability will begin to push the sales strategy of complex products outside of the constraints of brick-and-mortar and start to determine the AR environment as the popular point of sale experience. Early adoption is already going down in large manufacturing corporations across the globe, with initial investments seeing exponential returns.
Conclusion
As the momentum continues to grow, so will demand. The next big software categories to emerge shall be based on the appliance of recent AR technologies to specific domains, with considered one of those domains using augmented reality for B2B and B2C sales automation. With the potential to eliminate barriers that exist in geography and capital, AR is ready to revolutionize the sales process, enabling corporations to outpace their competition through more engaging, connected, and visual sales experiences.
About the Author
Marc Murphy is the CEO of Atlatl Software Inc., an organization offering a portfolio of disruptive sales software solutions, and a member of the Atlatl Board of Directors. Having joined Atlatl in 2016, Marc has extensive experience leading high-growth, results-focused startups, including SPARC, LLC where he functioned because the CEO leading to the corporate’s successful acquisition by Booz-Allen, Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) in November, 2015. With over 20 years of experience within the technology industry, Marc helps to revolutionize manufacturing sales enablement technology as a part of the worldwide Industry 4.0 movement.
