In recent years, virtual sales have saved thousands of businesses around the world while also serving as a catalyst for a movement that was already underway: people are increasingly shopping via their mobile phones. This shift brings challenges, such as consumers determining if a piece of clothing matches the shoes they are wearing or if a sofa fits in their living room space. 

Before the necessity for the digitalization of virtually every business, online shopping was already growing at a rapid pace, and some technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), became popular with the evolution of smartphones. In the late last decade, Google and Apple created tools – ARCore and ARKit, respectively – capable of allowing a virtual projection to be inserted into a real environment without the need for significant machinery or computational power. 

This happened about six years ago, even before artificial intelligence (AI) revolutionized all markets, but it was already present. AI enabled a smartphone with just a conventional camera to understand the depth of the environment without a second lens, which was previously used to simulate stereoscopic vision—the vision from two slightly separated eyes, responsible for the depth perception that we and other animals have. 

With the help of AI, AR revolutionized the way we shop online, especially when it comes to physical products that traditionally require a visual experience, such as furniture, decor, and electronics. With AR, consumers can visualize how a new sofa would look in the living room, whether a painting would match the current decor, or even how a new appliance would fit on the kitchen counter. One of the most innovative uses of this technology is displaying the color of paint on the house wall without using a drop from the can – and without buying the can only to realize it is not the desired shade. 

All this is done using a smartphone that the consumer already has in hand, without even requiring a high-performance model. With AR, e-commerce can offer greater confidence in purchasing decisions, reduce the return of items already sent to the customer, increase the personalization of the buyer’s experience, save time by not requiring visits to various virtual stores, and provide access to exclusive products. 

It is vital for e-commerce to take full advantage of augmented reality, aided by the artificial intelligence of smartphones, to reduce costs and increase customer satisfaction. In this way, it ensures an almost tactile, physical experience in a virtual environment, without demanding high-cost equipment from the buyer. After all, they already have this device and use it to purchase the product you sell through an app or website. 

*Alisson Aguiar is Global Retail Practice Senior Director at Compass UOL