AR in Fashion
I love shopping but I hate the process of trying on clothes/shoes and if I’m not happy, the process of returning the item(s). Thankfully, some of my favorite stores have been using AR to make the process go smoothly without having to visit a retail location. Augmented reality (AR) in the fashion industry has been a phenomenon in the past decade. Unfortunately, this technology has caused some retailers to close a number of their doors, due to having less foot traffic. AR works in the fashion industry by the consumer capturing an image or recording a video on their device and an AR tool adds an object to the frame that doesn’t exist. This allows brands to reach their consumer base, showcase their product lines and overall make it a fun experience for the consumer. Right before the global lockdown, Gucci had created and released an app that was powered by AR technology and let consumers remotely and virtually try on their shoes. Gucci went beyond this by partnering with Snapchat shortly after to offer essentially the same concept but through Snapchat filters, they made the right choice since their sales went up during the pandemic. The reason behind Gucci deciding to turn to AR technology was to boost their engagement, but, the ability for consumers to try on shoes during the pandemic when everything was shut down and drove their sales through the roof.