MIDVALE, UT— Augmented and virtual reality are rapidly translating from potential to actual factors in retailing, and Overstock.com has enhanced its AR/VR capabilities by recently debuting an iOS shopping app developed to level the field between it and brick-and-mortar retailers.
In discussing the expansion of augmented reality, Saum Noursalehi, Overstock’s president, even went as far as calling the technology a “nail in the coffin” of the brick-and-mortar sector.
Jaime Wilson, Overstock senior group product manager for apps, AR/VR, told HOMEWORLD BUSINESS®, “We really believe that augmented reality is an industry disrupter. This is a key piece of technology people are adopting and will be adopting.”
Now, with the app, Overstock shoppers using a cell phone or tablet with iOS11 can launch an augmented reality experience that features 3D models in high resolution. As such, the models provide an accurate representation of products available, which can include furniture, rugs, home décor and related household items, providing users with a concise view of how their potential purchases might fit in a room. The app also will capitalize on technology that will allow Overstock to provide product recommendations personalized to unique shopper style preferences.
The AR technology incorporated into the app, Overstock maintained, will advance initiatives aimed at changing the way consumers design and decorate their homes. With the app, customers can place thousands of products in the augmented reality environment alongside their own furnishings to see how sizes, textures and colors can work in their current interior design and add to the flow of any extent room environment. In addition, app users can share pictures of the room arrangements they favor via direct messages or social media.
Wilson said that 3D, AR and VR all are reaching the point when they will become a market force. For one thing, retail websites now can weave those technologies into their online merchandising in a way that’s easy for consumers to grasp and apply to their advantage.
“Ultimately, Overstock just wants to solve a consumer need,” she said. “We’re a tech company at the core, always looking to utilize technology to solve major customer pain points. This is about ease of use and the convenience of the experience. It’s more convenient to view products in the home than it is to jump in car and go look for something.”
The advances Apple and other technology providers are making in AR/VR are critical developments that are taking it from the periphery of online retail to a prominent position, Wilson said.
“What you’re seeing is major companies backing the technology,” she said. “You’ve got Apple getting behind it, Google getting behind it, Facebook, Microsoft. A giant signal is when Apple gets behind something you know that users are going to adapt it and at an accelerated rate.”
Overstock is using Apple’s ARKit technology to run the augmented reality element of its app. Apple describes ARKit as a new framework for iOS11 that allows developers to easily create augmented reality experiences for iPhone and iPad.
“Using ARKit was a no brainer,” Wilson said. “It’s pretty technologically advanced, with its plane detector, realistic textures, accurate lighting. You can see, in the 3D model, how items will look in space with accurate lighting. The technology checked all the boxes. Apple kind of nailed it.”
The technology enabled Overstock to develop its AR function in line with a specific set of priorities.
“Our ultimate goal is to create an experience that’s better than a showroom,” Wilson said. “We compete with other online retailers but also with brick and mortar. With the app, shoppers can view quality levels, favorite colors and how something works in space. We’re creating something that is beyond the brick and mortar experience. For us, that meant true to life sizes and views. It’s a different experience. Out there is a wide range of 3D models within the augmented reality space. Some are sketchy, cartoony. They are not solving customer problems. Our view is a true-to-life picture of furniture in a room.”
Beyond brick-and-mortar competitors, Wilson said the AR available through the Overstock app is differentiated from what online rivals offer because the model quality is superior. It is more realistic, she asserted, and essentially “leap frogs” the whole range of Overstocks’ competition, in part by making it easier for users to narrow down the products in which they are interested. The app does so by giving shoppers an exacting demonstration of how furniture works in their room environments. Then, the app uses machine learning to recommend products consistent with those the shopper is evaluating to make it easier to further customize a space.
Yet, Overstock faces a challenge common to retailing in general: How does the company tempt shoppers to engage with something new and not necessarily familiar to them? Habits die hard, including shopping habits.
“We truly believe if we create an awesome experience no further encouragement is needed, but with new technology like this, we try to encourage trial through education, helping people learn how use it, especially those not familiar with the technology. We think the technology should take it from there. As long as people tell us it’s blowing their minds, if that’s what they take away from experience, we know we did our job,” Wilson said.
Still, the faster the world gets out the better, and Overstock is counting on the sharing capabilities the app provides to speed adoption.
“The ability to share with friends and family is incredibly important in our experience,” she said. “The app gives users the ability to screenshot a room and save to a favorites list to share. That’s something we were thinking about from the beginning. It’s all really social, really shareable.”
In the initial app rollout, Overstock is targeting Millennials as the key demographic group as it pushes adoption, but the company has plans to build on phase one and entice other consumers.
“We look at this as a long-term industry disruptor,” Wilson said. “We see it as happening organically as companies like Apple and Google are talking about this. The rest of the population will follow. Social media will play a huge piece of it all. That’s targeted to Millennials right now, but we have a follow-up, long-term strategy. The younger generation opens up a whole new realm of where we can go along the lines of how we educate people to use augmented reality.”
As it proceeds and enhances the app, Wilson said Overstock will provide consumers more abilities. Consumers can put a virtual lamp on a physically existing desk and see how the light illuminates the associated space, for example. Consumers potentially can look at a piece of furniture in a given environment and then pick a size to fit the space appropriately. As such, the app provides new opportunity to customize products and the shopping experience, Wilson noted.
Within a couple of years, she said, AR such as the type developed by Overstock has the potential to change how consumers conduct their shopping.
“I think customization is a huge piece of that. If someone says they want a modern piece of furniture in red and this particular size, that’s a customer need and we’re just beginning to be able to serve that,” she said.
In fact, Wilson maintained that AR will not only change the game for online retailers but will force brick-and-mortar stores to reevaluate how they approach the consumer.
“We truly believe AR is an industry disruptor,” she said. “Brick-and-mortar retailers who are not looking into it will be soon.”
