The company has come a long way with AR-powered e-commerce over the past year, which gave its computer vision-based “Scan” feature a larger position in the app’s camera segment and updated it with business capabilities. In early 2022, Snap also rolled out real-time product and price point help to its AR grocery shopping lists.
This has resulted in increased customer engagement with AR trading, Snap says. Since January 2021, more than 250 million Snapchat users have engaged more than five billion times with AR to buy grocery glasses, the company notes.
Today, Snap announced that it will put augmented reality generation in the hands of stores by allowing them to use Snap’s augmented reality test generation on their own mobile apps and websites, with Camera Kit for AR Shopping.
This AR SDK (Software Development Kit) will bring catalog-driven buying goals to the retailer’s own product pages to allow its consumers to virtually see their clothes, accessories, shoes, and more. At launch, the feature works on iOS and Android. apps, but Snap says it will also appear “soon” on websites.
Its first global partner to use the generation is Puma, which will allow buyers to practically see in their shoes the integration of the camera kit. Shoppers would only point their phones at their feet to see the shoes they plan to display in an AR view.
Retailers will also have access to the new generation of AR symbol processing in Snap’s 3D asset manager, which Snap says will make it less difficult and faster to create augmented truth grocery shopping experiences. Through an internet interface, brands will be able to SKUs for their products and then convert them into Shopping Lenses, allowing them to create new Lenses in seconds and at no additional cost, Snap says.
To do this, partners will upload their photographs of existing products for the SKUs they sell, and the Snap generation will then process a deep learning module that will turn them into AR Image resources. This procedure uses AI to segment the garment from the brand’s style photography. , necessarily converting popular images into AR assets.
These assets can be used to create new lenses that can be worn through homebuyers taking a selfie photo of the whole body.
Virtual full-body imaging test. Image credits: Snap
The company is also adding new AR Shopping templates in its Lens Web Builder to convert those assets into Lense faster, without the need to perceive AR development. Some apparel, eyewear and footwear partners can beta try it out today, and Snap will do so later we’ll expand the feature to come with furniture and wallets.
Related to this, Snap is giving AR purchases a more important position in its own app for consumers.
Snapchat will introduce a new destination in the app called “Dress Up,” where users will be able to browse and view new fit reports from designers, retailers, and fashion brands in one place. “Dress Up” will be available first in Lens Explorer, but will soon be added to a camera tap in the AR bar.
Adjustment function. Image credits: Snap
Users will be able to return to outfits and other products they liked by navigating to a new grocery shopping segment from their profile, where they’ll be able to see the pieces they’ve favorited, recently viewed, and added to a cart.
As an example, Snap reports that Zenni Optical’s AR lenses have been tested more than 60 million times across users, and lenses using Snap’s “full-size” generation have been shown to have generated a 42% higher return on ad spend compared to Lenses without the feature.
Finally, in the virtual fashion box, Snap’s Bitmoji also gets an update. Now there are more than a billion of those mini-avatars created to date, which other people like to dress with virtual fashion pieces. Snap says fashion brand partners will now be able to sign “Limited Edition” fashion pieces for Bitmoji exclusively for Snapchat users.