Augmented Reality (AR) has become increasingly popular in various industries. Particularly in retail and e-commerce, the technology has made it possible to improve the overall customer experience by impacting every stage of the customer journey, from awareness to conversion and even retention. In this article, we’ll have a closer look into each of these stages and explore how the addition of immersive AR experiences improves not only the customer journey itself, but also business outcomes.
Introduction to AR technology
Generally speaking, AR technology makes it possible to overlay real-world environments with digital content that can easily be viewed via one’s mobile phone. This low-threshold access makes AR perfectly suitable for the retail and e-commerce sector, where the technology can be used to showcase products more efficiently and create immersive brand experiences that keep customers entertained and engaged, ultimately leading to higher conversion rates.
Impact of AR on customer awareness and consideration
When used for advertising purposes, AR technology can be a real game changer with regard to attracting new customers to the products and services that businesses offer. Here’s a list of benefits that AR advertising brings to the table in relation to the early stages of the customer journey:
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Enhanced brand and product display:
Walking into a store that carries loads of different products can be overwhelming at times, especially if the customer isn’t too familiar with the majority of the items on display. By creating enticing 3D content and positioning it in meaningful places inside the store, the attention of the customer can be channeled exactly where marketers want it to be.
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Increased brand awareness:
AR events offer a unique and memorable experience that stick with customers for a considerable amount of time. Additionally, such experiences can be easily shared through various social media platforms, which effectively contributes to endorsing the brand and increasing its exposure.
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Improved customer experience:
By providing fresh and innovative ways to engage with the brand and its products, marketers can positively impact the perception of the brand that customers instantly develop upon first contact. For instance, advertisers may use AR to add a personal touch to their products through various techniques related to AR packaging and AR advertising in general.
AR in the evaluation and purchase stages
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Enhanced product information
With AR, businesses can add virtual 3D models to their products, which customers can view from various angles and in different settings. This helps customers get a better idea of how the product looks and feels, making it easier for them to evaluate whether product is useful to them or not.
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Better product evaluation:
AR makes it easy for customers to evaluate the quality and usefulness of a product. This is because AR advertising can add valuable digital information to items both in-store and online, which helps the customer develop a more informed opinion before purchase. Finding out more about the product gives the customer more confidence in their purchasing decision, which also has the positive long-term effect of product returns becoming more unlikely in the time following the purchase.
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Interactive and immersive marketing:
Interactive AR marketing campaigns allow customers to engage with items in real-time. For example, by adding haptic experiences such as clickable event buttons directly to the augmentation, marketers can create an emotional bond between the customer and the item advertised, which is aimed at incentivizing the customer’s purchase decision.
AR in the post-purchase stage
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Continued support after purchase
AR technology can still be of great use to customers even after they’ve made the purchase, as it has the ability to keep them engaged and provide them with ongoing support. A piece of furniture, for example, may come with AR assembly instructions that customers can follow when putting the item together at home. This way, businesses can increase customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, paving the way for additional purchases.
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Facilitating reordering
With AR advertising, businesses can provide customers with an easy way to reorder products. For example, a customer could use their smartphone to scan a QR code on the product packaging and then be taken to a website where they can quickly and easily buy the same or a similar product again.
Best practices for implementing AR in the customer journey
To get the most out of AR technology, businesses should first, on an individual basis, identify the right use case, select the right technology, and measure the impact on business outcomes. As a second step, they can then create the actual AR experiences and seamlessly integrate them into the customer journey.
With regard to the technology, businesses have two options to choose from: web-based AR and native AR apps. While app-based AR experiences require the user to download a dedicated app to their mobile device before being able to start the experience, AR experiences that run on the web are more easily accessible and have a much wider reach. For a detailed comparison between app-based and web-based AR, jump over to this article.
But how to get started with your AR campaign?
One AR content creation platform that is fully web-based and focuses on providing a complete end-to-end solution for the AR advertising sphere is SQUARS. The platform offers a user-friendly AR editor with a no-code environment, which businesses, creative agencies, and creators in general can use to build exciting AR experiences as well as plan, organize, and run their own AR campaigns.
Conclusion
AR technology has the power to greatly enhance the customer journey from soup to nuts. By adding immersive experiences along the buyer journey, businesses can increase brand awareness, drive sales and revenue, and strengthen customer loyalty by providing continued after-purchase support. So far, this innovative approach has helped several retail businesses including big brands like Coca Cola, IKEA, or MacDonald’s to market their products effectively and boost sales and revenue.
When looking for the right tool for your AR campaign, SQUARS will be the perfect choice. It’s fully web-based, highly user-friendly, has an unmatched price-performance ratio, and comes with great collaboration features enabling teams to efficiently share their workload when building the content for their AR campaigns.