AR Shopping: Top Trends and Apps for the Future (2024)

Not long ago, the world of augmented reality (AR) seemed like a far-distant sci-fi dream. But in the blink of an eye, it became a reality—used by businesses to sell products. 

Although the AR market is still in its infancy, it’s growing fast. Early adopters of AR have, in recent years, been gamers and those interested in the “metaverse.” But AR isn’t only for them.

Consumers are increasingly seeking more immersive experiences and demanding the ability to interact with products and brands before making a purchase. That enthusiasm has the potential to drive $5 trillion in value creation before 2030, and leading companies are actively experimenting with metaverse commerce in everything from home and food to fitness and apparel.

In this guide, we’ll go over what AR shopping is, details about the AR/VR market, AR shopping trends to watch out for in 2024, and the best AR shopping apps currently available.

What is AR shopping?

Augmented reality shopping allows customers to virtually try on and test products through an electronic device such as a smartphone or virtual reality headset.

AR can either help customers feel like they are in a brick-and-mortar store interacting with products or show them how products will look in their homes or, in the case of fashion, on their bodies.

As such, AR lends itself to marketer applications by allowing consumers to engage in pre-buying behaviors like virtually trying on clothing or makeup, or overlaying furniture into a living area to gauge its size and suitability with the rest of their home furnishings.

The future of the AR/VR market

The augmented reality market was valued at $40.12 billion by 2022, and it’s projected to reach $1.19 trillion by 2032, giving marketers and platforms good reason to invest in the technologies.

Major tech companies are trying to accelerate that trend by investing more in AR and VR tools. For example, Google acquired Raxium in 2022, a startup that specializes in smart glasses with new technologies that could greatly improve the prospects of Google’s previous (and current) Google Glass attempts.

And more recently, Apple acquired AR headset startup Mira. This news came just days after the company’s release of their first VR headset Vision Pro, and it could be a step toward furthering the technology the brand puts out.

Newer smartphone cameras have also made AR shopping more accessible as they continue to improve hardware and software, enabling AR functionality across various apps. Consumer-friendly try-on options, paired with better technology distribution, make AR an increasingly appealing technology for marketers.

We’re seeing a number of beauty brands make forays into the AR/VR world, letting potential customers do things like try on different colors of hair dye or test different shades of foundation just through their smartphone’s camera feature.

Six AR shopping trends to look out for in 2024

In this section, we’ll provide an overview of six different trends to look out for in the AR shopping space in 2024, starting with the most popular method of using AR technology: social media apps and camera filters.

1. Social media apps and camera filters

Since the beginning of the pandemic, people naturally have spent more time online. As a result, brands have had to experiment and innovate to engage with them and encourage people to use their ecommerce and social commerce channels.

Some of the proponent mobile apps of using AR for brands early on were Snapchat and Instagram—allowing brands to create AR filters for their products for customers to use. 

For example, Snapchat recently worked with nail polish brand OPI to create a try-on filter allowing users to test out different nail polish colors right in the app.

If you’re interested in trying out this trend for yourself, here are a few tips on getting started with using social media for AR:

• For Snapchat, you can use SnapAR Lens Studio to create an AR lens from scratch, or use their templates for a quicker turnaround.
• If you use either Facebook or Instagram, you can use Meta Spark to build out AR filters for Facebook or Instagram Stories.
• Whichever platform you use, you’ll still need talent on your team that can handle creating the 3D models or art for your campaign to use in the AR environment, as it’s not an easy task anyone can do (it takes some technical skills and expertise).

That said, social media isn’t the end-all of AR—businesses have implemented the technology outside of social media, which we’ll discuss in more trends below.

2. Virtual try-on

The most obvious use of AR for brands is product demonstration. Virtual try-ons are perhaps most applicable in the fashion and beauty verticals. People all over the world are learning and becoming excited about augmented reality use in the ecommerce industry.

If you’re interested in creating virtual try-on experiences for your products, here are a few tips:

• Keep it simple. The more complex you try to make your AR, the more likely it is to be messy when customers try to use it—everyone has a different face and body, so no AR will be perfect (yet) at mapping 3D models to all customers.
• If you’re using social commerce (i.e., Instagram/Facebook Shops), you can implement AR virtual try-on in your shop as a feature when customers are scrolling through different products or product variations, removing friction in the buying journey.

Virtual try-on features have an extra benefit for business—they can potentially decrease losses resulting from customer returns, since the customer has an idea of how the product will likely look on them.

3. Virtual showroom

Similar to the idea of virtual try-on is the virtual showroom. As mentioned previously, this is the AR technology that allows customers to virtually place items in the environment around them (such as a living room).

The main difference between virtual try-on and showroom is the customer flipping the camera around. Other than this distinction in the way customers use the hardware, there isn’t much difference in the technology involved—which is good news for business owners.

When it comes to placing products in the environment using AR, here are some tips to follow:

• To create and publish an AR-enabled product listing on Amazon, you’ll need to use Amazon Sumerian—and AWS service that boasts how accessible the platform is for those who don’t have specialized knowledge on 3D modeling.
• Showroom-style AR is also different in how the user is likely to interact with it, i.e., they’re likely to move around with the camera, or point it at several places within their environment. Therefore, it’s important to make sure that the item can communicate the planes (surfaces) that mobile devices can detect to manage expectations of where the AR item can be placed.
• Consider using visual cues or text to instruct the user on how they can interact with the AR (i.e., how they can move the object around or change its orientation).
• Also consider the constraints of both the environment the user might be in and the device they’re using to apply AR—for example, the AR should be easy to use with one hand, and usable in a variety of environments.

Virtual showroom style filters/lenses are potentially the best application of AR for most businesses selling physical products—at least until better technology arrives.

4. Better AR hardware options

Innovations in mobile technology, such as better depth sensing hardware (LiDAR and ToF), don’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon—as a result, each iteration of new phones becomes better equipped to handle AR features.

The mobile AR market revenue, predicted to nearly triple in five years from $12.45 billion in 2021 to $36.26 billion in 2026, reflects this growth in capability and consumer appeal.

But it’s not just smartphones getting AR attention. As mentioned earlier, with better technology becoming more widely available, companies such as Google (including Android), Microsoft, Lenovo, and Vuzix are getting busy building smart glasses. Some even announced plans during CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in 2022.

AR-enabled smart glasses may see some improvement in development next year, but we don’t expect them to be widely available in the very near future. So for now, the focus remains on mobile augmented reality technology.

The main tip for thinking about mobile AR (and its improving capabilities) is the potential to develop brand-owned applications (for example, using Apple’s ARKit) for customers to see your products with AR, similar to IKEA building the IKEA Place app.

5. AR mirrors for in-store shopping

Another interesting trend to watch out for in the retail space is investing in AR mirrors in-store.

There are two main methods of how AR mirrors work. The first is by using a digital screen with motion-sensor technology placed behind the mirror, then using AR to superimpose images onto the mirror in real time. The second method is by not using a real mirror at all, and instead using a digital display with cameras, similar to an extra-large smartphone.

The smart mirror market was valued at $3.8 billion in 2022 and is predicted to grow to $9.1 billion over the next 10 years.

One major brand that has implemented smart mirror technology in-store is MAC Cosmetics:

These mirrors can help shoppers when they’re in-store and either don’t want to try different makeup options. If you want to consider using AR mirrors in your stores, it’s worth considering the hefty investment it would take to roll them out across multiple locations—from the cost of the displays themselves to developing the software that goes inside them.

6. Using AR to gamify in-store shopping

In the research previously mentioned by Modern Retail, all survey respondents said they mainly use AR for entertainment purposes. So what happens if a brand uses AR to make the in-store customer experience more entertaining?

Some brands are testing this by using AR to gamify in-store shopping—which, for UK brand Tesco, has built brand engagement, brand loyalty, and longer dwell times with products.

Tesco decided to team up with Engine Creative to build AR experiences in the Tesco Discover app. While it works to help customers learn more about scanned products, it also gamifies the experience by having customers scan products.

The concept of AR in-store gamification might seem difficult, but here are a few tips that could help you get on this trend:

• Like the example from Tesco, tie your AR experiences to specific products in-store. This way, you don’t have to attempt to create extensive 3D model mapping that would take too much time and money to implement.
• Use a QR code to encourage shoppers to start the AR experience with their phone’s camera, and potentially keep the experience localized within specific geographic parameters in-store, instead of trying to cover the whole store.

The great aspect of this trend is that many younger customers will recognize the gamified AR concept from the popular mobile game Pokémon Go, and will intuitively know how to proceed after opening up the AR experience.

AR retail examples

We’ve already covered a few great examples of augmented reality in shopping, but let’s look at a few more. And more specifically, how these brands are using Shopify’s AR tools to offer new options to their customers.

Cambridge Satchel

UK bag retailer Cambridge Satchel has been a Shopify customer since 2017, when they made the switch to cut down on costs. Cambridge Satchel now enjoys a number of Shopify features, including the ability to add an AR shopping experience for their customers.

Shoppers can see which Cambridge Satchel bags will best match their wardrobe or aesthetic by juxtaposing a 3D image of one of their bags against whatever their camera sees.

“The fact that we can offer this kind of AR experience with our budget puts us on a level playing field with people who have much greater resources than we do,” says founder Julie Deane.

Consumers are enjoying the ability to “try on” different bags before deciding which one to purchase.

Complex Networks

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of businesses to have to reconfigure the way they did business—and Complex Networks was one of them. Complex Networks is an entertainment company that hosts an annual in-person event called ComplexCon.

Of course, the pandemic and subsequent shutdown made sure that no in-person events were happening in 2020, so Complex Networks had to adapt.

Through Shopify’s AR tools, they were able to completely digitize the entire event, creating “a first-of-its kind immersive digital shopping experience where attendees could explore, engage with brands, and have fun.”

The event was a success, and Complex Networks has been able to engage their audience through digital events like this ever since.

Gunner Kennels

Gunner Kennels is a company that produces heavy-duty dog kennels to keep pets safe during travel or transportation. But shopping for the right dog kennel online can be daunting as customers need to make sure their pet will easily and comfortably fit.

This is why Gunnel Kennels took advantage of Shopify’s AR tools, in order to create the ability for customers to place a 3D model of a kennel next to a photo of their dog to make sure they select the correct size.

Adding this new shopping feature has increased order conversion by 40% and reduced return rate by 5%. Gunner Kennels plans to use this technology on additional products in the future due to its success rate.

Rebecca Minkoff

Another fabulous handbag company, Rebecca Minkoff, has also taken advantage of Shopify AR tools to provide an enhanced shopping experience. The brand has started using 3D modeling and AR to help customers better connect to their online catalog.

Cofounder Uri Minkoff says, “3D media makes for a much more interactive shopping experience. Customers can examine our products from every angle, including the option to view products in augmented reality, which helps them get a better sense of quality, size, and other details that matter.”

Since activating these new features, customers are 27% more likely to place an order after viewing the product in 3D and 65% more likely to place an order after interacting with a product in AR.

Best AR shopping apps

We’re going to cheat here and suggest two AR apps as the better options for AR shopping currently available—Amazon and Shopify.

Shopify AR

If you want to own your website and store (as opposed to selling through Amazon as a third-party seller), then Shopify’s AR shopping app can host your AR product media on your store.

With Shopify AR, you can use 3D assets and videos of your products to give your customers a better understanding of the size and function of an item—giving them more confidence in the product quality and suitability.

As we can see with the examples we just shared, Shopify’s AR tools help provide a better shopping experience, leading to more sales and fewer returns.

Amazon

Amazon is one of the top online shopping marketplaces in the world (based on GMV, they sit behind Taobao and Tmall, at $390 billion). So consumers are familiar with and regularly shop on Amazon. As seen in the trend examples we shared previously, Amazon has a “see it in your room” feature available for larger home-based products such as furniture and TVs.

Start using AR in your retail strategy

Augmented reality might have seemed like science fiction a few years ago, but it’s no longer confined to books and movies—businesses are using AR today to help customers shop with more confidence while making the experience more fun and immersive.

The trends we’ve covered in this guide show no signs of slowing down either, which means now is a great time to move ahead of the competition by using AR technology in your online store.

To see how Shopify can help you place your products in augmented reality, check out the AR guide in our help center to get started.