While some retailers have been hip to the possibilities of augmented reality for years, commercial applications have remained limited to a handful of pioneering brands. With the release of the Apple Vision Pro earlier this month, however, more companies are embracing the tech.
One such recent adopter is Wayfair. The online retailer of furniture and other home decor launched its AI-powered app Decorify on the Vision Pro last week, with a promise to help users “experience their new spaces in an immersive environment.”
Users upload a picture of their space to create a 3D re-creation to test out different layouts and designs using Wayfair products, theoretically taking some of the guesswork out of shopping.
“Apple Vision Pro represents an innovative new way for shoppers to style their rooms and experience our catalog directly in their homes,” Wayfair Chief Technology Officer Fiona Tan said in a news release.
Here come the apps: The technology is an example of what’s often called “spatial computing,” and Apple is touting its diverse commercial applications. Earlier this month, the company announced that there are more than 600 apps built for the Vision Pro, including from retailers such as Lowe’s and J. Crew, which both launched apps in the last two weeks.
Lowe’s Style Studio works similarly to Wayfair’s Decorify, taking “advantage of the unique capabilities of spatial computing to help customers visualize and design their dream kitchen from the comfort of their own home,” according to the company.
J.Crew’s Virtual Closet, meanwhile, allows shoppers to try on clothes using an in-app mannequin set against realistic backdrops—another example of using AR to visualize products in an e-commerce setting.
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As Dan Berthiaume, senior editor of technology at Chain Store Age, wrote in a recent blog post, “Early retail deployments of Apple Vision Pro solutions are focused on leveraging the technology’s spatial features and ‘real life’-like blending of physical and digital to enable the placement of virtual products in a user’s surroundings.”
But retailers are also adopting AR for other uses. For example, Lowe’s has developed a tool called Measure Your Space that uses AR to assist customers in measuring their homes.
Appealing to customers: The potential upside of these tech investments is that they can attract more customers and increase buying, and one 2019 survey from Deloitte presented an optimistic picture for retailers. The research firm found that 34% of customers already use some form of AR, and 71% said they would shop more if AR options were available.
Since then, major retailers such as Walmart have invested heavily in AR capabilities. Now, the release of the Apple Vision Pro, which some call an “iPhone killer,” could accelerate adoption, but there are some barriers to entry, according to tech futurist Cathy Hackl in Harvard Business Review.
She identified a lack of technical expertise, competition between app developers, and a problem they call “platform lock-in,” in which “developing an app exclusively for visionOS could mean the app is locked into the Apple ecosystem.”
“It’s up to the early adopters and their developers and partners to figure out the best practices, implementations, and creativity to make apps that will be a wearer’s first pick,” Hackl wrote.