By Jen Spofford, The Archer Group
There’s plenty to love about online shopping — especially convenience and speed. Press a button, and Amazon delivers items the next day. You can stock up on essentials, and comparison shop in seconds. 51% of us here in the U.S. prefer to buy online, and 80% of us have made an online purchase in the past month.
But I’m sure I speak for many of us when I say buying clothing online has some drawbacks. If you’re buying a new brand or even a different cut by a brand you like, it’s nearly impossible to know how something is going to look on you before you try it on.
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Enter virtual try-on technology. You may have seen it if you’ve shopped for glasses at Warby Parker or JC Penney Optical. These retailers acknowledge eyeglasses are notoriously tricky to fit, and buying frames online seems like a huge risk — until now. The same way you can adorn yourself with flower crowns on Snapchat, you can preview glasses with virtual try-on, which superimposes a high resolution, color-corrected image of frames on your photo.
The technology is still new, and it’s not for everyone. Companies that do most of their business in their physical store locations may not see much of a return on investment. But there may be benefits they aren’t considering: Even if virtual try-on doesn’t increase online sales dramatically, it can help customers pre-sort styles before entering a brick-and-mortar store to try on items in person.
The Best Ways To Implement Virtual Try-On
Wondering if virtual try-on is a good fit for your business? Consider these points before taking the next step:
Determine the business need. This is not a technology that should be implemented because it’s cool. Can virtual try-on improve customer experience and cut down on returns? If not, it may just seem gratuitous.
Figure out how customers will use it. If your product is worn on the head or around the shoulders, your virtual try-on could be easily modeled using the built-in camera of a mobile phone or laptop. Full-length views are more complicated. Find out what you’ll need — and if virtual try-on is even practical.
Don’t try to build it yourself. There are plenty of online augmented reality tools available that you can either buy or license. They’ll speed your time to market and likely lower the cost of your investment.
Consider an outside implementation partner. Just as you shouldn’t build it yourself, hiring an experienced third party to implement it for you can save time and resources. This goes for the high-quality photography and other marketing elements you’ll need, too.
Solve the problem in the physical world instead. Sometimes a virtual solution isn’t the answer — but an IoT solution could be. LikeAGlove.me uses a different high-tech approach. It’s not an apparel brand. It’s a service to make denim shopping easier (finally). It sends you “smart leggings” to determine your body shape and deliver the data to LikeAGlove’s app. Then it suggests brands and sizes to fit you perfectly.
Eyeglass companies have laid the groundwork in using virtual try-on technology to address some inherent problems with online shopping. Retailers are already benefitting, and services like LikeAGlove are springing up around new technology. Clothing design could be next: If designers harness these capabilities, made-to-order apparel may be in our future, making bespoke wardrobes accessible to everyone.
But for now, anything that makes pants shopping easier is a win in my book.
Jen Spofford is the Chief Strategy Officer at The Archer Group. She oversees Archer’s business strategy and client service practices, leading the agency’s subject matter experts in creating the most innovative technology solutions to answer clients’ business challenges. A 15-year agency veteran, with seven years spent in New York City, Spofford has worked in both creative boutiques and established industry giants. Prior to joining The Archer Group in 2009, she served roles at a number of marketing agencies and has managed integrated communications campaigns for Kraft, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, and The Coca-Cola Company.
