Content may be king in the online world, but a meaningful picture can speak a thousand words. The best way to convey content to visitors is through interactive images. Images have the power to connect directly with users. Visual content is more capable of generating sales leads and thus these days website owners prefer visual content over general descriptive content.
When it is about expressing content with images, 3D visualization and augmented reality is widely preferred technology. 3D and AR are not new technologies in eCommerce. It has been years when these two technologies have been used to formulate images, but in recent years, the popularity of the two technologies has increased.
In modern business images with 3D and AR are widely preferred. They are generally used because they are capable of attracting visitors. These technologies can create smart and interactive images and thus ensure better customer experiences.
Research proved that web applications with innovative 3D images are successful in attracting visitors to a bigger extent. Such a website does not only receive a better count but also helps in the conversion rate. With rich media created through 3D and AR, one can drive heavy purchases on a website.
The 3D images are easy to create and involve less investment when compared to other image creation options still they ensure a better conversion rate. This is a technique that provides a realistic product view that helps users experience the product online. When they know the product, they tend to purchase it. This is how 3D and AR images help drive more purchases at a lower rate and thus ensure a higher return on investment.
Understanding 3D (in eCommerce)
3D photography is a simple transformation of plain images into virtual images so as to ensure a better experience for users. It entails an enhanced and attractive description of the original product. This is advanced photography that takes pictures of the product in 3D visualization in three dimensions. The virtual photography is completed in a visual studio to achieve better results.
3D images are smart images that are taken from each angle of the product with an advanced camera such that it can replicate the original product in all ways. These images are smart in a way that they can let customers zoom in, zoom in, rotate, and explore it to get the perfect detail of the product.
When 3D photographs are included in the eCommerce portal, it ensures a better experience for users and this could ensure enhanced conversion rate and increased sales lead. This ensures a better return on investment.
Understanding AR (in eCommerce)
Augmented reality is an amazing technology that helps create virtual objects. This can be launched and used in real-world environments. AR ensures providing interactive experiences to users within an eCommerce portal. Using the advanced augmented reality option, it is possible to provide computer-generated information within an image.
AR is capable of converting real-time images into virtual images. This creates real-time interaction with 3D virtual objects so that users can know more about the product and make the final purchase decision. The AR techniques can create effective images that can entail a proper description of the product. These virtual images can match colour, size, style, and physical spaces in all ways, such that this array of photos can depict the experience of the original product in all ways.
The relationship/ interdependence of 3D and AR
3D and AR are technologies that ensure technical advancement in which eCommerce portals have been promoting sales on their platform. After lockdown eCommerce companies are focusing to promote products with interactive images and in such cases both 3D and AR helps.
In today’s era, 3D and AR go hand in hand. When augmented reality helps give an interactive approach to objects, 3D technologies help them provide photorealistic representations. AR converts general product images to virtual representations in the real world. 3D photos help depict the product image in an attractive manner to entail everything about the image.
The 3D and AR images help ensure a better experience for users and thus both of them are beneficial when eCommerce platforms are looking to sell in an interactive and attractive way. It helps connect with users and ensures a better return on investment for an eCommerce portal.
The impact of 3D and AR on eCommerce ROI
Augmented Reality (AR) and 3D Technology both help to give your eCommerce a boost. The market has drastically changed from physical stores to online ones and there is a huge competition between e-commerce business brands. Nowadays, customers really need something fascinating and entertaining to shift their focus towards the product. AR and 3D help with that. Through AR, customers can actually take the feel as if they are trying the product on themselves. From creating a virtual background to zoom and rotating the product, there is nothing AR and 3D can’t help with.
AR and 3D are technologies that have actually changed the way of shopping. Today the eCommerce platform provides better and realistic pictures of products with the help of AR and 3D. This is the reason why users prefer buying from those portals that provide a pictorial representation of the product with 3D and AR views. These technologies are a small investment that eCommerce portals make to ensure sales and return on investment. The impact of 3D and AR can be seen in the final sales achieved on eCommerce portals. Following are the impact:
- It has lowered the return rate
What’s better, if a customer can experience a product before buying it? The main complaint registered by customers for return is that the product is not the same as shown in the image. With AR, this issue has been resolved as customers can try the product. They can see the products in different colors, sizes, angles, or even rotate them.
Customers also tend to have higher confidence when they can see how the product looks on them. Today, most cosmetic e-commerce portals provide an option with which users can try products such as lipstick shade or eye color. This helps them set their preference in an easy way.
2. Enabled customization for customers
Customers always like to have options and variety. A 3D model can give your customers those choices. One can select product types and colors according to their own choices using 3D. Through 3D models, customers can zoom or even rotate as it can enable 360 degrees view.
3D models have the biggest advantage for furniture stores as customers can see how a product will fit in their own house. This advantage is used for interior design and room decors. One can choose the furniture in their desired size and color and see if it is matching with their house walls and space.
3. 3D models are less expensive than traditional photoshoots
Many believe the 3D photoshoot costs must but this is an investment that eCommerce owners can make within their budget to achieve a higher rate of investment. Photoshoots do require extra effort and planning. With traditional photographs, you have to pay for the camera, rent the location and hire a photographer. Traditional photo shoots can be really expensive at times and also take a number of days. This is not the case with 3D and AR, such photoshoots are smarter and easier.
Traditional Photography was not able to do many things that 3D models can and this includes features such as 360-degree view, interactive backgrounds, changing colors, etc. The 3D rendering technology is so advanced that it allows better color correction than traditional photoshoots. 3D models save your money and time while giving you better results.
4. The engagement has increased
Many believe that a physical store is better than online shopping but what if you can enjoy shopping at a physical store right when you are sitting at home? AR allows you to enjoy a physical store experience right on the eCommerce portal. It provides the experience to engage with customers and build a trusted relationship with them.
The next phase of AR might enable merchants to virtually interact with customers as if they are in a shopping mall. It lets them enjoy a real product experience to depict the actual product in a better way.
5. Develop new products
AR can allow the development of new products in an easy way. Developers have a huge benefit from AR as now they can visualize the product better. They can even walk around the virtual room, compare and modify the product virtually.
When developers create a product that can simply visualise the original product, they can offer just the exact images of the product that resembles the original product in color, texture, and structure. When 3D photos are taken from different angles, it is possible to create new products anytime without any issues so that they can be easily included on portals for sale.
6. High conversion rates
A conversion rate simply implies that people are taking the desired action after reaching your eCommerce website. A high conversion rate means that you are offering people exactly what they need and they are easily purchasing it without any doubts.
3D models and AR have proven to increase the overall conversion rate of eCommerce portals. The product images created with 3D and AR help predict the product in a better way and thus help consumers to purchase it without any doubt. When people have higher trust in your product, the conversion rate automatically increases. This ensures increased sales lead for your eCommerce portal. Products described using AR videos can increase the conversion rates by 60%.
7. Increases shopping time
Videos that use augmented reality to give details and instructions about your product can increase customers’ shopping time. It is just similar to people exploring in the mall or shopping stores where someone can describe the product to them. It also helps customers to have more clarity on the product because such products, images can convey all about the product.
When product images are attractive, users enjoy searching and crawling the eCommerce portal to find what they are actually looking for. An eCommerce portal can provide more than one product and when users spend more time on your store, they can end up buying multiple products at a time.
The statistics say that 61% of customers prefer shopping from e-commerce portals with an AR experience, 71% would shop more if they use AR technologies while 40% are agreed to pay more for an AR customizable product. Augmented reality and 3D have been highly beneficial to both customers and retailers. It has ensured less investment; high conversion rates and more engagement. It lets customers explore and examine the product. Meanwhile, the retailers can push their eCommerce business and have higher sales in lower expenses and time using AR and 3D.
How 3D & AR is now a way to survive for eCommerce businesses?
Lockdown and the urgency to sit back home gave rise to the eCommerce business. People were bound to be at home and thus were unable to visit even their nearest physical store. This increased the adoption of eCommerce. Digitization was at its peak at this tenure and people started trusting e-commerce portals to order even their daily needs items.
It was this time when eCommerce portals were selling products at a high rate. This creates huge competition among leading portals. During this period of digitization, the eCommerce portals tried almost everything to stay at the top and one of the ways was to include attractive images of products to attract visitors.
When visual sales are combined with augmented reality and 3D technology, it helps create wonders which help the portal to stand out from other competitors. It has been proven many times that when products are sold with 3D images rather than old descriptive content, it is more likely to be purchased. One of the most innovative ways to let a product reach the customer is with visualization of the product to entail its description and this is the common reason why techniques of 3D and AR are so widely used.
To prove the benefit of 3D modelling, two e-commerce portals were compared. One had a simple text description with basic static images for the product and the other had smart 3D product images. The difference was felt between the visitors visiting the website and the conversion rate. The website with 3D and AR images was winning. It had more enhanced customer interaction, better selling, and less product return.
3D and AR- The Future of eCommerce
It is sure that 3D & AR is a way to survive for eCommerce businesses. This is because it can ensure the following benefit for eCommerce portals:
- Increased customer engagement
3D images are a smart way to influence customers and this ensures better customer engagement. - Increased order value
The website which has images noticed increased orders values. It had more users and more orders. - Increased shopper trust
When the website had 3D images, it conveyed everything about the product in a better way. This helps users trust the product of the portal and purchase it with trust. - Increased conversions
3D images ensure to provide exactly what users have been looking for from a product. This helped them judge the product and thus there were more purchases and increased conversions. - Decreased return
When users know more about the product just before they made their final purchase decision. In such cases, the probability of return was less. - Increased rate of investment
The cost involved with 3D images was quite less and in return, it ensured increased sales lead thus ensuring the increased rate of investment.
Conclusion
It is not wrong to say that the future of eCommerce is virtual shopping with 3D images. It is true that augmented reality and 3D images, eCommerce portals have surely observed increased purchases and better conversion rates. This proves that this is a need of the day and the advantages of AR and 3D cannot be ignored.
For every eCommerce portal, it is important to improve the overall experience of its users. With such smart techniques of AR and 3D, the experience of users can be enhanced. The benefit of AR and 3D helps improve the overall conversion rate and further boosts the revenue.
These smart techniques help improve the final design of the product and can transform the way the product will be sold. Such transformation can boost web traffic, reduce, return, help in brand building, increase order size and also reduce the overall costs. With a better and interactive consumer experience ensured with AR and 3D, it is possible to enhance the overall rate of investment. It virtually opens an opportunity to sell better at comparatively less investment.
