For an ecommerce merchant in today’s increasingly digital world, there are endless new technologies at your disposal. Two technologies on the rise are augmented reality and virtual reality, which one report projects will exceed a market volume of $16 billion in the United States by 2029.
Learn more about how AR and VR work, the key differences between them, and some of the ways you can use them to increase productivity and creativity in your own business.
What is augmented reality?
Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that facilitates the interaction between digital content and the physical world by overlaying computer-generated sensory inputs like sounds and graphics onto a real environment. Viewers can engage with augmented reality through smartphone cameras and smart glasses that place virtual elements onto real-world objects and locations.
For example, the popular mobile app Pokémon GO uses AR technology to engage viewers in an interactive video gaming experience. Outside of entertainment, AR systems apply to manufacturing, health care, education, real estate, retail, and other industries.
Ecommerce tools like Shopify AR allow shoppers to test out and explore products through interactive 3D models, images, and videos overlaid onto physical environments.
What is virtual reality?
Virtual reality (VR) technology creates a fully simulated environment for viewers. Through tools like VR headsets and motion controllers, virtual reality applications completely replace a user’s real-world environment with artificial sensory inputs like visuals, sounds, and haptics (vibrations to simulate the experience of touch).
VR technologies allow users to interact with a fully immersive virtual environment for entertainment, education, or increased productivity. For example, VR devices offer architects a virtual world to create accurate 3D models for future buildings. VR users in the health care field use this new technology to simulate medical procedures with no real-world risk.
Although VR technology is popular for creating a more immersive gaming experience, it also has wide applications in the world of business, like employee training and remote collaboration.
Augmented reality vs. virtual reality: What’s the difference?
AR and VR are both extended reality (ER) technologies designed to enhance a user’s experience of reality with computer-generated sensory inputs. That said, there are key differences between these two technologies:
Level of immersion
Whereas AR devices add digital elements to real-world environments, VR devices completely replace the real world with a fully simulated environment. This creates two distinctly different experiences for users, with AR facilitating enhanced experiences in the physical world and VR offering sensory experiences completely detached from any physical environment.
For example, AR apps like Araya’s virtual makeup AR plug-in give cosmetic brands the tools to let customers apply beauty products using their smartphone cameras before purchasing them. It adds information to a real image of a customer’s face to help them make an informed decision.
By contrast, real estate companies can use VR devices to create virtual tours of properties by letting prospective buyers walk through 3D-rendered depictions of available spaces. By creating a fully virtual environment that users can explore, VR technology is not limited by real-world environments and spaces in the same way as AR technology.
Equipment
Augmented reality is often integrated into apps on Android and Apple devices. These apps use trackers and markers to overlay digital information onto video feeds of a physical space from a phone's camera, making AR tools accessible to anyone with a smartphone. Although AR headsets are available, software on mobile devices facilitates most AR experiences.
Virtual reality requires hardware tools like headsets, headphones, motion sensors, hand and eye trackers, and haptic devices like gloves to simulate movement and create a fully immersive experience. In this way, virtual reality typically requires more equipment than augmented reality. Because VR experiences require special equipment like a VR headset device, VR tools can be more costly for businesses to implement than AR apps.
Applications
Whereas AR is designed to offer useful, educational, or entertaining additions to real-world situations, VR lets users transport themselves to a completely different reality.
For example, AR applications can give users information about their immediate surroundings, like the names of constellations when they point their phone’s camera at the night sky. Conversely, VR focuses on letting users interact with virtual objects, characters, and settings that are disconnected from the user’s physical surroundings.
Ways to use AR and VR for business
Ecommerce merchants and business owners can use AR and VR technologies in several ways:
Product design
An AR or VR environment can give product managers, designers, and engineers the tools to develop and iterate on product designs without the expensive process of manufacturing physical prototypes.
For example, engineers and designers in the automotive industry can use VR tools to create digital prototypes of vehicles that don’t yet exist. In the ecommerce space, a merchant creating pairs of over-ear headphones for commercial sale could use AR software tools to project what different designs would look like on customers.
Training
AR and VR technologies can help train professionals for real-world scenarios in risk-free virtual environments. These technologies can enhance the learning process by facilitating interactive exercises that go beyond simple training manuals.
For example, a retail company could use VR headsets as digital training devices for customer service training, so employees can practice common customer interactions. AR and VR training tools can give surgeons hands-on experience that’s impossible to re-create in a real-world setting.
Shopping experience
One of the most useful applications of AR and VR tools for ecommerce merchants is the ability to let prospective customers test out products before purchasing them. With ecommerce platforms like Shopify launching AR software tools like Shopify AR, it’s never been easier for merchants to use augmented reality to enhance the customer experience.
IKEA launched an AR app that lets users see how different pieces of furniture look in their real-world environments by digitally overlaying the furniture through a phone’s camera. These kinds of immersive experiences can increase sales conversions by helping customers feel comfortable with the products they’re testing out. One case study by fashion brand Rebecca Minkoff showed that shoppers were 44% more likely to add an item to their cart after interacting with it in 3D using AR software.
Customer service
Another application for VR and AR tools is to enhance customer service. For example, an e-bike company could use an AR app to allow customers with technical issues to scan their bikes and receive instructions for fixing the issue. Similarly, IKEA uses AR tools for this type of customer service with an AR app designed to provide customers with full-size step-by-step furniture assembly instructions.
Productivity
Businesses can use AR and VR devices to increase productivity throughout everyday life by enhancing remote collaboration. For example, employees across different locations can use VR headsets to hold interactive meetings in the same artificial environment.
These tools can increase a sense of teamwork and presence during meetings by creating a shared setting where employees can socialize and interact in real time. These technologies can also enhance a company’s ideation process by allowing team members to seamlessly share ideas and prototypes.
Augmented reality vs. virtual reality FAQ
What industries use AR and VR?
A variety of industries use AR and VR, including health care, manufacturing, entertainment, advertising, real estate, tourism, architecture, and ecommerce.
How is augmented reality different from virtual reality?
Augmented reality (AR) involves overlaying digital information onto a real-world environment through smart glasses or a smartphone camera. Virtual reality (VR) engages users in a fully simulated environment disconnected from the physical world through hardware equipment like headsets and motion sensors.
How does augmented reality work?
Augmented reality (AR) uses cameras and sensors to recognize the physical dimensions of a real space and overlay digital content onto it in the form of sensory inputs like sounds, images, and graphics.
