Amazon has recently introduced several new features for shoppers to find products from their mobile devices using augmented reality (AR) shopping technologies.
The additions aim to challenge firms like Google, Pinterest, and others dominating the eCommerce search sector. Google previously debuted its own multisearch tool via its Google Lens platform, with Lens initially debuting in October 2017. The company also launched the multisearch tool last year.
The retail giant also added several other key functions, including searching via text and images, or multimodal search, as well as a ‘Find on Amazon’ tool to locate items similar to those in photos shared with the Amazon app.
In its announcement, Amazon wrote,
“We recently extended our View in Your Room feature—which enables you to see exactly how a piece of furniture or décor will look in your space—to include tabletop items, such as lamps, home décor, and small appliances like toaster ovens and coffee makers. The new mobile experience uses augmented reality to place the products you’re searching for on a tabletop surface in your home. Not sure if that coffee maker will fit on your kitchen countertop? Now, using View in Your Room, you can easily visualize how it will look in your space and make a more confident purchase decision”
Amazon has also improved its visual search engine, allowing potential customers of the platform to take photos of items they want to purchase. The computer vision tool then searches for the item by comparing it to the captured image. Using a combination of text and images, people can locate the exact items they wish to buy on the platform.
Amazon AR Shopping Takes on Global Ad Spending Market
The Seattle, Washington-based firm opened its doors to customers, where they can use AR to preview furniture and virtual try-ons (VTOs) for clothing. Users can also preview furniture items anywhere in their physical spaces.
Now, the new Find on Amazon function allows people to take photos. Users can ‘share’ the photo with the Amazon Shopping app to locate the item in its marketplace.
Additionally, the new option will link sales trend data for individual or group items along with previously purchased items to improve searches.
Changes made to the app are expected to hit Google advert revenues, namely as Amazon targets Google and Meta’s ad spending shares on the market.
The news comes after Meta Platforms integrated AR adverts across its family of apps (FoA), including Instagram and Facebook. Additionally, Snap and ByteDance have created similar platforms across their social media platforms for use with major multinational firms.
Companies like the National Football League (NFL) and even Music Television’s (MTV) Video Music Awards (VMAs) 2023 have tapped Snap’s technologies to expand their market outreach.
Amazon-Hexa Partnership
The news comes after Amazon Web Services (AWS) commissioned 3D visualisation platform Hexa to help the former expand its AR shopping assets and functionality. With Hexa’s immersive innovations, Amazon expanded its real-time 3D assets to back VTOs, AR content, and immersive 360-degree videos.
AWS’s collaboration with the two will port 2D items into 3D digital assets to boost conversion rates for shoppers. Also, it will streamline workflows for those companies vending on the Amazon shopping marketplace.
Users can leverage the Hexa platform’s Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) to convert the assets from 2D to 3D.
The upgrades will also help the company to scale its operations as many retailers move from brick-and-mortar shops to eCommerce platforms. This trend experienced remarkable growth during the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to 2023, forcing many shops to transfer to online platforms.
From 2D to 3D Packshots: Ads Made Easy
For example, Hexa’s digital twin technologies create 3D packshots for online catalogues at scale, leading to rapid conversions of product lineups.
Removing the need for physical studios, the packshot technology will allow 3D scans of items, using just a smartphone or special camera for volumetric capturing.
These will also allow direct changes to digital assets to avoid reshooting items in a studio environment. Assets can then be loaded into online programmes for creating promotional material, adverts, VTOs, brochures, calls to action, and prototypes.
Companies can also reach sustainability goals by tapping digital twin technologies for online shoppers.
Numerous companies have engaged in similar immersive experiences as eCommerce rapidly adopts XR technologies. NexTech AR, Warpin Reality, Avataar, BZAR, Bizzlogic, and Morpheus have rallied global communities around their respective brands with metaverses, digital content, and collaborative online communities.
Earlier in the week, Bizzlogic announced the debut of its Meadow platform, which serves global firms and organisations as a platform for meeting in the virtual world. With it, companies can host major product launches, collaborate with RT3D objects, and conduct additional activities with bespoke avatars.
