Google's AR Virtual Try-On: Another Leap in Online Shopping

At a time when the pandemic has shifted consumer behaviour, affecting millions of business owners, embracing cutting-edge technologies is the need of the hour. Google’s recent developments and launches reaffirm this need.

Last year, in December 2020, Google launched an AR try-on option in some of its search results. The company partnered with top brands like L’Oréal, Black Opal, MAC Cosmetics, and Charlotte Tilbury to deliver users a virtual try-on shopping experience for several beauty products like lipsticks and eyeshadow.

How Does Google’s Try-On Option Work?

To make this happen, Google partnered with ModiFace and Perfect Corp; ModiFace offers AR tech, and Perfect Corp is the maker of the YouCam Makeup app that also offers various other AR beauty tech solutions. Now coming to the ‘how to use google augmented reality’ part...

You can use this Google augmented reality try-on option on your phone directly from the Google app. When you search for any relevant queries like “L’Oréal’s Infallible Paints Metallic Eyeshadow”, you will see results with the virtual try-on experience. From there, you can click through the photos of different models and see how the product will look on them.

A step further, you can also select the ‘try it on’ option, which will show how the product will look on you via your front-facing camera.

The brands involved in this engagement are limited now, and so are the products available for the virtual try-on on the Google result page. However, the objective of the AR adoption by the search giant is to redefine online shopping, which has become more prevalent in this pandemic.

This is a clear indication of a shift in the retail segment where the focus for brands now is to provide customers with a try-before-you-buy experience, which addresses the often-called scepticism of online shopping that the customers don’t know how the product will look on them before making a purchase. The problem can thus be solved with AR virtual try-on solutions. This will aid the customer’s purchasing decision, eventually helping the business owners achieve higher conversion.

Beauty Brands Moving Ahead with AR

Google incorporating AR and providing virtual try-on experience is just one example. The popularity of Augmented Reality in the e-commerce industry has skyrocketed in recent years, with many beauty brands jumping in the pool to try different AR solutions and makeup apps, in different ways, on different platforms.

Brands like Ulta Beauty and Sephora have always been ahead of the curve by deploying cutting-edge technologies in their sales and marketing channels. Sephora, for instance, has a Virtual Artist app that provides users step-by-step instructions on their faces through AR to get a makeover look. The app also provides personalised recommendations to the users regarding which products would fit better for their skin tone. L’Oreal once teamed up with Facebook to serve users AR ads wherein users can virtually try lipsticks or eyeshadows on Facebook, in their feed.

So, the cosmetics market, whose size is expected to touch the $463.5 billion market by 2027, is clearly taking augmented reality much more seriously.

Jewelry Brands Aren’t Too Behind Either

While Jewelry businesses are usually conventional in their practices, many big brands have jumped ahead in recent times by adopting advanced technologies. Augmented reality is helping them reach out to customers in a more personalised way, boost customer-brand engagement, instil more confidence in customers, and truly shape a unique brand identity that’s impressionable with higher retention value.

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