Intelligent use of technology is the best way to get ahead in the competitive fashion retail world. Technological innovations are helping retailers and brands understand their customers better. Give them higher-quality interactions, and tailor their products and experiences to them.
The fashion industry is now increasingly aware of extended reality’s benefits. Such as AR and VR, to solve real problems in fashion retail rather than just treating them as cool gimmicks.
New Fashion Experiences
AR fashion show at Paris Fashion Week allowed audiences to scan models using a dedicated app, revealing hidden designs. The models wore black and white clothing, where the design was obscured. Only through the app was the actual dress color visible.
This sample might seem like a gimmick, but AR and VR can open the door for brand-new virtual experiences in the fashion world and solve one of the industry’s most significant issues. Showing consumers what the products will look like on them.
Bringing Fashion to Life
In 2014, VR pioneer Chris Milk explained the power that VR could hold. Saying that it was a natural progression from books and movies:
“You read a book; your brain reads letters printed in ink on paper and transforms that into a world.” You watch a movie; you see imagery inside a rectangle while sitting inside a room, and your brain translates that into a world. And you connect to it even though you know it’s not real because you’re used to suspending your disbelief. With VR, you’re essentially hacking the visual-audio system of your brain and feeding it a set of stimuli close enough to the stimuli it expects that it sees as the truth. Instead of suspending your disbelief, you must remind yourself not to believe.
How Does This Affect Fashion Experiences?
While society still seems to prefer the traditional method of going into a store and trying on their goods, online shopping is on the rise. However, it does not present the emotional experience shopping can have. The lack of uniformity in sizing makes it difficult to make accurate purchases, leading to a high percentage of returns.
Many fashion brands are looking for ways to allow consumers to try on their virtual goods in their homes for a more personalized and satisfying shopping experience.
VR and AR can also become a channel for brand-consumer interactions on a much deeper level than traditional marketing and advertising, something more akin to social media in a fashion setting.
There are two main ways to help make the virtual shopping experience more accurate, the virtual changing room or the virtual tailoring approach.
Virtual Fitting Rooms
Augmented reality seems to work very well with the virtual fitting room approach. Many businesses are introducing virtual fitting rooms to increase customer satisfaction and boost business.
Virtual fitting room technology lets customers try on garments, shoes, etc., on a 3D avatar of themselves without actually wearing the product.
AR for clothing experience, in this way, creates a personalized and engaging experience that benefits both customers and brands.
GAP was one of the first major brands to experiment with AR clothing with their Dressing Room app, letting users try on a dress in a virtual mirror.
Virtual Tailors
Virtual tailors can provide consumers with perfectly fitted outfits using augmented reality. A virtual tailor uses different machine-learning technologies to provide highly accurate and precise body measurements for its customers.
One company that has had success with this technology is Fit Freedom. Fit Freedom is a unique body measurement application that simplifies the online apparel shopping experience. The application takes the user’s measurements, converts the measurement data across many product lines, and creates custom-fitting garments.
This sample makes it possible to get body measurements quickly and easily by creating a 3D fit model and using it to recommend product sizes across the platform’s many retailers.
Create the Right Type of Experience
It’s easy to throw money at technology and try to devise a quick solution. But it must be done correctly, or it will be a waste of an opportunity.
Any brand or retailer looking to engage with these new technologies must know what they want or will not see the correct results.
Working with the right provider is essential to create the best solution for their business. Talk to ARize today, and see how you could build brand new experiences to benefit your customers and your business.
