Tag: Virtual reality
Extended Reality (XR) is not a technological marvel. It’s a force that is reshaping how we interact with the world. This blog will help you discover how XR catalyzes the shifts in customer behavior and market demand. But first, let’s explore what Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) are.
Join us as we unravel the layers of XR. A fusion that transcends technology and propels us into a realm of possibilities and unique experiences.
Extended Reality (XR): A Fusion of Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Realities
XR is a versatile umbrella term. It includes a range of immersive technologies. They are changing how we interact with the digital and physical worlds. At its core, XR integrates three primary components: Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR).
- Augmented Reality (AR) – Enhancing Real-world Experiences: AR enriches reality. It overlays digital elements on physical surroundings. This is done through smartphones, smart glasses, or AR headsets.
- Virtual Reality (VR) – Total Immersion in Alternate Realities: VR disconnects users from the physical world. It transports them to synthetic environments using headsets like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.
- Mixed Reality (MR) – Seamlessly Integrating Real and Digital: MR blends AR and VR, creating a real-time interaction where digital and physical coexist. Devices like Microsoft HoloLens integrate holographic images, bridging the gap between real and virtual realms.
The Evolution of XR: From Novelties to Necessities
Over the years, XR has improved a lot. It has reshaped how we see and interact with the digital world. Initially, XR technologies were perceived as cutting-edge novelties confined to niche applications and experimental projects. But, fast progress and innovation have moved XR into the mainstream. It is widely used in many industries.
One pivotal aspect of this evolution is the distinction between XR and spatial computing. Spatial computing uses spatial mapping and computing to improve interactions in physical spaces. XR covers a broader range of technologies. XR integrates AR, VR, and MR, providing a comprehensive framework for immersive and interactive experiences.
As XR technologies matured, the focus shifted from novelty to practicality. Better hardware, graphics, and advanced sensors made XR apps more realistic and useful. This evolution has facilitated the seamless integration of XR into diverse fields, ranging from healthcare, education, entertainment, and enterprise.
Deliver Revolutionary Customer Experiences with XR Technology
XR: Transforming Customer Behavior and Igniting Business Opportunities
Extended Reality is reshaping customer behaviors and presenting businesses with unprecedented opportunities. The immersive nature of XR technologies has far-reaching effects, as shown below:
1. Enhanced Customer Engagement
XR transforms the customer experience, fostering deeper engagement and interactivity. In retail, for example, AR empowers customers to try products virtually. This reduces uncertainties and bolsters confidence to buy right. This heightened engagement correlates with increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
2. Personalized Product Experiences
Businesses leverage XR for personalized product interactions. Customers can visualize products in real settings or explore virtual showrooms. This customized approach enriches the shopping process. Businesses can also gain deeper insights into customer preferences.
3. Improved Decision-Making Processes
In the real estate and automotive sectors, XR facilitates decision-making through immersive experiences. Prospective homebuyers can virtually tour properties. Car buyers, meanwhile, can customize and visualize vehicles in intricate detail. This expedites decision-making and enhances the likelihood of successful transactions.
4. Training and Skill Development
XR revolutionizes professional training with VR simulations. Businesses use realistic scenarios to build employee skills. This leads to better performance and lower training costs, making them more efficient.
Medical Simulation Training: XR is used in medical training for simulations. It lets healthcare pros practice surgeries and procedures in a virtual world. This addresses challenges related to limited access to real-life scenarios, enhancing practical skills, and reducing the learning curve.
In industries like manufacturing and construction, XR is used for training. It is for training on complex machinery and equipment. According to a PwC study, using AR/VR devices lets employees train four times faster. This led to a 275% increase in their confidence. AR/VR training emerges as a powerful approach. It substantially minimizes training duration and also helps eliminate training accidents.
5. Opening New Avenues in E-commerce
XR is reshaping e-commerce with AR try-on features and VR-enhanced virtual shopping. This evolution improves online retail, leading to higher conversion and lower returns.
AR Try-Ons in Fashion: E-commerce platforms integrate AR for virtual try-on experiences in the fashion industry. Customers can try on clothing and accessories with their smartphones. This solves challenges related to being unable to try items before buying. This enhances the online shopping experience and reduces return rates.
VR-Enhanced Virtual Shopping: XR technologies, particularly VR, create immersive virtual shopping environments. Customers can explore products in 3D. This addresses challenges from the lack of physical interaction in online shopping. This provides a more engaging and interactive experience, increasing conversion rates.
AR try-on technology in clothing retail boosts Average Order Values (AOVs). It also encourages repeat purchases. According to Threekit, 71% of consumers say they will shop more with AR in their customer journey.
6. Streamlining Product Design and Configuration
XR streamlines processes. These processes are critical for product design in industries like automotive and manufacturing. XR facilitates virtual prototyping in the automotive industry. Designers can create and change 3D vehicle models. This streamlines the design process and addresses challenges related to the cost and time of physical prototyping. It leads to more efficient and cost-effective design changes.
Discover Transformative Business Opportunities & Innovations with Extended Reality
Fingent’s Guide to XR Triumph
Elevate your enterprise to new heights with Fingent’s unparalleled expertise in Extended Reality. Our tailored XR solutions redefine training, customer engagement, and product design processes. We specialize in creating immersive simulations for efficient employee training. We craft AR/VR apps that enhance customer experiences. We also streamline product design with virtual prototyping and 3D modeling. Seamless integration into existing systems ensures minimal disruption. While continuous support and optimization keep your enterprise at the forefront of innovation. Transform possibilities into reality with Fingent as your strategic XR partner.
Ready to embark on a journey of enhanced success?
Witness the transformative power of XR reshaping your enterprise’s training programs, customer interactions, and product design processes. Let’s redefine success together!
Our digital era is a whirlwind of change, with technology driving transformation at breakneck speed. It’s not just about adopting new gadgets; it’s about recognizing technology’s influence on consumer interactions. Retailers are at a crossroads with fresh opportunities and challenges. However, there’s a bright side – smart retail technologies can enhance the consumer experience, adapting to modern shoppers’ evolving needs and expectations.
In this article, we’ll explore how technology is transforming the retail sector and how businesses can use these innovations to meet the ever-changing demands of modern consumers. Ready to elevate your retail game? Let’s dive in!
Revamping Retail: How Smart Technologies Elevate the Shopping Experience
To remain competitive, retailers are adopting smart retail displays. These technologies are rapidly growing, with a market value of USD 30.25 billion in 2022 and a projected CAGR of 29.1% from 2023 to 2030. The convergence of innovation and retail has given birth to a shopping experience like never before. The retail industry is undergoing a transformation that promises to delight and engage customers. Let us understand how they are making retail smarter and more efficient.
1. Augmented Shopping
Gartner’s 2020 prediction of 100 million AR users was spot-on, and during the same year, the conversion rate for AR users surged by an impressive 90%.
Augmented reality (AR) is no longer limited to entertainment. It’s transforming the way customers interact with your products. By overlaying digital information onto the physical world, AR allows customers to visualize products in their real-life settings. Imagine someone shopping for furniture, using their smartphone to see how that new couch would fit in their living room. It’s a powerful tool for enhancing decision-making and customer engagement.
Did you know? As per research conducted by Deloitte, utilizing virtual try-ons and Augmented Reality (AR) in shopping experiences results in a remarkable 94% increase in conversion rates.
2. Virtual Trial Rooms
The VR retail market is expected to see substantial growth, increasing from USD 3.18 billion in 2023 to USD 18.99 billion by 2032, with a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.00% over the forecast period.
One of the most thrilling advancements in VR and AR in retail is the emergence of virtual fitting rooms. For clothing retailers, virtual trial rooms are a godsend. These digital fitting rooms allow customers to try on clothing virtually, eliminating the need for physical changing rooms. Shoppers can see how garments look and fit without the hassle of undressing. This technology saves time and enhances the overall shopping experience.
3. 3D Web Configurations
Instead of static product images, customers can interact with 3D representations of your products. This technology bridges the gap between online and in-store experiences, making online shopping feel more tactile and immersive. A recent study revealed that 93% of Gen Z have shown keen interest in using AR and 3D configurators for their shopping experiences.
In today’s digital age, attracting customers to your physical store can be challenging. Here, 3D experiences play a crucial role. These immersive technologies enable customers to explore your products thoroughly without visiting the store, helping them make informed decisions. This not only boosts conversion rates but also enhances in-store interactions with your staff, who can better understand customer needs.
4. Staff and Cashier-Free Stores
Staff and cashier-free stores are becoming increasingly popular, thanks to technologies like RFID, computer vision, and automation. Retailers are now investing largely in automated checkout processes. This innovation not only eliminates the need for traditional checkout lines but also enhances security and reduces theft.
Shoppers can grab what they need and simply walk out of the store, with their accounts being charged automatically. This convenience and time-saving aspect of cashier-free stores greatly enhances the overall shopping experience.
5. Data Science-Based Personalization
Data science and artificial intelligence are at the heart of personalization in the retail industry. Retailers collect and analyze vast amounts of customer data to tailor shopping experiences. Machine learning algorithms analyze a customer’s browsing and purchasing history to provide personalized product recommendations, exclusive discounts, and content. This increases sales and makes customers feel valued and understood.
6. Machine Learning for Demand Forecasting
Machine learning is transforming the way retailers manage their inventory and predict customer demand. Traditional methods of demand forecasting often led to overstocking or understocking issues. Machine learning algorithms, however, can analyze real-time data and make more accurate predictions based on various factors like seasonality, customer behavior, and market trends.
This technology ensures that stores have the right products in the right quantities at the right time, reducing waste and ensuring that customers can find what they want when they visit the store. Accurate demand forecasting greatly enhances the shopping experience and minimizes disappointment.
7. Frictionless POS Systems
Frictionless Point of Sale (POS) systems streamline the checkout process. Contactless payments, mobile wallets, and self-checkout kiosks make payments faster and more convenient for customers. With the ability to complete transactions quickly and without hassle, shoppers can spend less time waiting in line and more time enjoying their shopping experience.
Frictionless POS systems also provide a more secure and hygienic way to make payments, which has become increasingly important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a survey of U.S. consumers, tap-to-pay mobile apps emerged as the top retail tech, with 66% giving it a positive rating for improving their shopping experience.
Watch now: How smart malls of the future would look like!
Transforming Retail Experiences: Fingent’s Expertise in Technology Solutions
At Fingent, we take pride in our role as a technology consulting and solutions provider, helping retailers navigate the modern landscape to discover unique opportunities and implement them swiftly with cutting-edge technology.
We believe in staying at the forefront of technological innovation, using data-driven insights to empower you to optimize operations, elevate customer experiences, and respond agilely to market changes. We employ agile development methodologies and support you through change management, ensuring that technology adoption is not just efficient but also seamless. We understand the importance of scalability, compliance, and security and work diligently to safeguard your interests.
By partnering with Fingent, retailers can confidently stay competitive, foster growth, and ensure long-term viability through innovative technology adoption. We are here to help you uncover the endless possibilities in the dynamic world of retail. Connect with our experts today!
Customer Experience – Two words that could make or break your business.
Today, customers expect businesses to provide nothing short of an excellent customer experience whenever and however they shop. This is going to be the main differentiator between you and your competitors. The race to own customer experience is on!
Some businesses are learning this the hard way, but you don’t have to. The solution is right here – Technology. Through this article, we want to help you understand how technology can improve customer experience. We will also discuss top technology trends to help your brand beat the competition.
But first, let us explain why customer experience matters.
Does Customer Experience Matter?
Did you know that 66% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations?
Gone are the days when an unhappy customer used to complain directly to the brand. Today, they choose to complain to the rest of the world through social channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more. Creating a powerful and memorable customer experience is more complicated than ever in such a scenario.
While that is true, it is also true that these customers share positive customer experiences on these platforms as well. 71% of customers recommend a product or service just because they received a “great” customer experience.
As a brand, you may define your brand’s promises. However, the customer decides whether or not your brand delivers on its promises. According to market research by Gartner, customer experience drives over 60% of brand loyalty.
To satisfy customers, most businesses hire and train good people. But that is not sufficient. They need tools that will help them deliver a top-notch customer experience and make them want to come back to you. Using technology for customer experience can build your brand through satisfied customers.
That takes us to the next intriguing question: How does technology improve customer experience?
How Does Technology Improve Customer Experience?
Technology for customer experience gives customers unlimited access to information, allowing them to demand products and services whenever they want. As the speed of technology to enhance customer experience accelerates, businesses must evolve quickly. Brands that use technology to enhance customer experience will thrive, but you can be sure that those that are slow to react will not survive.
Here are three key ways in which technology enhances customer experience:
1. Increased opportunities
Using smartphones, customers can research products, raise queries, and purchase products or services no matter where they are and what they are doing. A study revealed that consumers in the UK spend over 22.8 billion pounds per year on online shopping while using public transport.
With consumers becoming hyper-connected, businesses need to leverage increasing opportunities to engage new and existing customers. Technology can help companies integrate all marketing channels to deliver a cohesive customer experience irrespective of their channel. Technology can help you use customer data effectively to deliver seamless experiences.
2. Reach every audience segment
According to a Google report, 90% of online shoppers use more than one device to shop. A shopper may use one device to search for a product and another to check the pricing and complete the purchase.
Businesses need to be available with the right messaging at the right time. Technology for customer experience will help you reach your customers on any device. Technology can enable you to provide contextually relevant experiences that engage customers in the right place, at the right time, and with the right message.
3. Communicate better
Most customers switch brands because the purchasing process is too difficult. Technology offers solutions to reach customer demands. AI-powered chatbots enable your brand to communicate better with your customers.
Since chatbots provide detailed records of conversations with customers, you can use that data to analyze to reveal insights on consumer pain points. You can use these insights to improve products and services.
Top Technology Trends That Improve Customer Experience
1. AI chatbot
AI chatbot is restructuring the way brands communicate with their customers. These conversational AI chatbots are responsible for creating a personalized customer experience, making sentiment analyses, and more. Consider a use case:
Fingent helped one of the oldest state universities to develop an AI-driven ecosystem that allows students to interact with an AI chatbot (teaching assistant). These are built to be trained and allow instructors to upload the content that students need. These chatbots can manage student queries and allow for keyword and tag searches of teaching material.
2. Virtual reality
Virtual reality is a game-changer enabling customers to educate themselves about your company. Plus, VR redefines how your sales reps understand customers, increasing their empathy and enabling them to suggest better solutions to their issues.
Fingent recently built a highly interactive visual medium to enable medical students to quickly gain efficiency in stand medical procedures.
3. Augmented reality and 3D configuration
Augmented reality is considered a boon to improving the digital customer experience. It gives customers a clear picture of your product, helping in quicker purchasing decisions.
Fingent helps build interactive mobile apps that enable 3D purchase decisions. It also develops agnostic web solutions for eCommerce to better use AR capabilities.
Fingent- A Perfect Partner to Create Custom Technology Solutions To Enhance Customer Experience.
The impact of technology is a powerful catalyst for change, and the speed of that change is getting faster and faster. Fingent can help you identify technology trends and capitalize before it is too late.
You must acknowledge and meet consumer demands for your business to increase market share and stay relevant. Marrying customer service and technology can drive customer delight.
Fingent brings you deep expertise in experience strategy and design, harnessing best-in-class solutions. We can help you drive transformation across the customer lifecycle, sales, marketing, and more.
Fingent top custom software development company is equipped to provide support across channels. Our quick and easy setup allows you to cut time and lower costs. With the help of AI and automation, we can route your tickets to the right agent and boost customer satisfaction. Find out more about us and chat with our experts to see how this can be done.
Educational institutions were among the most impacted aspects of society when the coronavirus unleashed its hold on the world. Over the course of 18 months schools, colleges, and universities all around the world have faced more than their fair share of problems. No matter how difficult adapting to a completely different mode of teaching and learning is, many institutions faced the challenge head-on, pivoted, and caught up with the rapid change successfully.
In this blog, we will examine the challenges that loomed in front of the admission and college selection process and how rising technologies like VR & AI have helped tremendously in successfully dealing with these challenges.
Read more: The future of Augmented Reality in EdTech!
The Pandemic – A Massive Challenge for Students
Transitioning into the university lifestyle is usually a very significant part of an individual’s life brimming with feelings of anxiety, trepidation, and excitement. Adding into this already complex intersection of negative emotions, the aggressive transmission of COVID-19 has altered the higher education landscape on a colossal scale.
The pandemic created exponential threats to a student’s experience of streamlined higher education. Poor psychological outcomes, increasing levels of social anxiety, inducing feelings of lethargy, and reducing overall academic performance are predicted in the recent college students. To top it all, new applicants are facing the most difficulty deducing if a college is a good fit for them or not without ever entering the campus because of the pandemic restrictions.
Admissions and the College Selection Process During The Pandemic
The pandemic has forced universities and colleges to alter admission policies in recent years. There are constant updates in admission procedures that everyone must be aware of, whether it’s the extension of application deadlines or a change in how the admissions department will be evaluating applications.
1. New Selective Process
Many institutions dropped stereotypical testing methods and canceled extracurricular activities, and admissions counselors have changed how they examine and evaluate applications. Admission staff are encouraging potential students to showcase their caliber, personality, and passions during admission, particularly how they pursued the latter accompanied by a world plagued by COVID-19.
2. Efflux Of Applications
Since most popular universities and colleges decided not to consider SAT/ACT scores, they have faced a surge of applications creating greater diversity in the application pool. This hope is slightly misleading. Theoretically, it may seem as though the students have a good chance at admission, but this does not always translate into reality as these institutions still remain very selective.
3. Prosperity In Medium-Level Institutions
A great number of students who didn’t find acceptance in popular institutions found their hope in Medium-Level Institutions
4. Travel Restrictions
Due to travel restrictions, colleges provided online platforms for applications and even conducted interviews for admission through online mode.
Decrease In College Enrolment and Its Effects
Although universities and colleges have tried their maximum to keep admission procedures streamlined, College enrolment has seen a massive slump due to the pandemic. There is a drop of almost 1 million college students enrolling in higher education since before the pandemic began. Compared with the fall semester before the pandemic in 2019, undergraduate enrolment has dropped a total of 6.6%, representing the largest two-year decrease in more than 50 years. Thousands of students, many from low-income families were forced to delay school or drop out because of the pandemic and the economic crisis it has created.
Health and economic factors play into why hardly any students are enrolling in college during the pandemic and why people are opting for better-paying jobs instead of spending money on college. Given that cost is still the biggest obstacle, it isn’t surprising that prospective students suggest “free college” for a bigger impact on them finishing or returning to college – a very interesting insight that legislators are currently debating on.
The impact of having students not enrolling in college affects their individual earning potentials, as well as the economy of the country. Research shows that getting even a simple post-secondary education can lead to higher wages, lower unemployment, and greater lifetime earnings. Without this, fewer people graduate with the skills, credentials, and degrees required for a higher-paying job, which means unemployment for the student and a lack of a skilled workforce for the community.
Read more: Answering the top burning questions on AI implementation for businesses!
The Timely Rise Of VR & AI
“Change is inevitable and the disruption it causes often brings about new opportunities.”
Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial intelligence (AI) are two cutting-edge technologies on the rise today. Their practicality has been proven in a number of fields and in the midst of the pandemic, these technologies grow greater.
Higher education administrative processes have started using AI to recruit, admit and enroll students. It acts as a powerful instrument in nurturing innovation and entrepreneurship in universities and it can accurately estimate demand, which means it can predict with precision how many applications to accept to achieve prime enrolment numbers.
Here are a few ways how AI helps:
- AI-backed software scores an applicant against a set of significant factors based on past applicants and builds software for higher education. This is comparatively easier and faster than admission officers assessing each and every application on their own.
- AI eliminates situations where an admissions officer might know an applicant and be biased, robotically flagging a personal connection that exists between two parties.
- AI can customize, speed up and personalize the admissions process for intercontinental students, including visa processing, housing selection, and course registration.
- AI has the latent to create interventions for students suffering from homesickness or social isolation and is thereby an important tool for student welfare, ultimately attracting more student applications.
#1. How Fingent Utilized AI-enabled Chatbots To Create Enhanced & Engaging Learning Experiences
Fingent helped the University of North Carolina develop an AI-driven ecosystem powered by IBM Watson that facilitates students to interact with an AI-enabled Teaching Assistant(AiTA). Multiple Chatbots are set up to manage a wide range of student inquiries. Also, important documents and teaching materials are uploaded with keyword and tag searches to make them easily accessible. The environment enables to create a healthy student-teacher relationship, instruct and engage students effectively, and improve students learning experiences.
Virtual Reality on the other plays a major role in providing a mode for students to experience the campus without even stepping into the college or university with Virtual Reality Campus Tours. At Fingent, we were able to capitalize on this for our clients. By applying the latest mobile technology and 360-degree panoramic video abilities, we helped build apps that swiftly connect students with campuses of their choice through their mobiles, reforming and simplifying the complete search process. Deploying Virtual Reality to innovate campus visits is also helping increase admission rates from underprivileged areas of the country, allowing students to seamlessly find the right courses and campuses from anywhere!
Here are a few ways how VR helps:
- A VR package allows overseas students to get a sense of what the community and campus are like.
- It creates a high-quality image of the college and by using cost-effective devices like Google Cardboard, keeping costs in check becomes a less daunting task.
- With the help of VR, you can give enrolled students (who have not already seen the campus) a more profound sense of campus life and community. The idea is to charm them to make time for an in-person campus tour.
#2. More On Gear Up – Deploying VR For Campus Visits
GEAR UP is a virtual reality-based app that helps high school students experience a college campus through Virtual Reality and 360 Video. GEAR UP creates direct connections to college campuses and curates the college choice process. It empowers individual exploration and is completely free to download, making it easily accessible. It invites students to explore colleges and focuses more on first-generation students. The Introductory videos are anticipated to assist students in finding a suitable college to fit their interests and give them a sense of where they might want to attend. GERA UP is created as an initiation to help increase the number of students from low-income backgrounds who seek to obtain a secondary or post-secondary education.
College admissions, learning experiences, and in a way, the entire education industry is on the brim of a massive revolution. Deploying technology seems like the only way to tackle the ever-growing challenges and adapt to the fast-evolving world. It’s time now to step into digital transformation. Connect with us today and partner with one of the leading custom software development and technology consulting companies!
“The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.”
– Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft.
When we look around us today it has become exceedingly obvious that the world is moving at a much faster pace than we remember. If not all, most of the credit goes to the vast number of technological developments that take place almost every day. In this rapidly changing world, we can either choose to evolve with it or stay back and live with the feeling that we are completely out of place and out of our depth.
This blog will help you understand all the “realities” of today’s tech world and help you fit right in and create a future workplace, to move ahead of your competition.
Reality In Its Many Forms
Some of the fastest developing and most exciting branches of technology out there are Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Although some companies have already integrated this technology into their business practices to create innovative and sustainable workplaces, it is imperative for every business to invest in AR and VR. If they want to succeed in this overly competitive world that is.
Recent studies conducted by PwC show that VR-trained employees were up to four times more focused than their e-learning peers and four times faster to train. When trainees are taught with a VR experience, they learn more from the training and have superior outcomes. Creating a workplace that is equipped with this kind of technology will most definitely increase the work productivity of the employees.
VR and AR have evolved over the past years and have become more convenient both technologically and financially for business and learning. They affect companies in every industry and various organizations, from universities to social enterprises. They have become the new terminal between humanity and machines, uniting the digital and physical worlds.
Read more: Top AR and VR Trends to Transform Ecommerce in 2022!
Now that we’ve established the necessity of VR and AR for businesses and industries, let’s move on to understanding what exactly these technologies are and what they do.
Virtual Reality
It is an artificial environment created by software and requires a special headset that plunges you into the new reality. It immerses the user within its virtual environment and in most cases, the user can manipulate objects or perform a series of actions.
Augmented Reality
AR, conversely, does not give an absolute immersion. It adds digital elements to a live view usually done by using the camera on a Smartphone or tablet.
Mixed Reality
Mixed Reality blends elements of AR and VR to co-exist creating a combination of virtual and actual realities, allowing you to interact with both simultaneously.
Extended Reality
XR is an umbrella term used when all these computer-generated technologies are used together.
Read more: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Mixed Reality Detailed with Real-life Examples
How do these technologies influence the future of a workplace?
Listed below are a few ways that AR/VR/MR/XR is influencing the future workplace.
Virtual Reality –
- Increased Connection and Collaboration – As opposed to video consultation, VR users feel like they inhabit the same space, resulting in more effective collaboration.
- New HR Practices – With access to employees across the world, hiring practices will widen to recruit top talent.
- Upgraded Training Techniques – VR training is especially favorable in perilous situations, as it offers a safe, engaging, and educational experience.
- Efficient Product Development – VR finds its use in product testing in a variety of scenarios, abolishing the need for costly physical paradigms.
Augmented Reality –
- Will Save Money – AR headsets and apps can replace costly seminars or classes.
- Improve Productivity – Increased engagement through collaborations with other companies using AR will change the way employees work.
- Cognitive Barriers – With the help of AR your workforce can train much faster. This will in turn lead to a more structured, competent, and productive team.
Mixed Reality –
- Better business operations – MR can help companies work efficiently by allowing engineers to try new ideas without wasting resources and reducing complex processes.
- Enhanced training – It can offer experiential training sessions which allow team members to experience a situation for themselves, in a simulated environment.
- Improved creativity – It improves project development by allowing teams to make important decisions and alter features without wastage or excessive resources.
Extended Reality –
- Investment Banking – By using XR for broadcast, a firm could reach and interact with many investors over multiple locations in a robust and dynamic way while reducing costs, logistical challenges, and the need for travel.
- Trading Floor – XR replicates all the benefits of a modern trading floor along with advanced capabilities, plus the ability to access the trading environment from anywhere in the world
- Training and Compliance – Scenario models powered by XR, could be used to provide real-time training and ensure employees are well-equipped for real-world situations.
Read more:5 Real-world Applications of Extended Reality
Identifying Which Ecosystem Best Suits VR/AR/MR/XR
To determine which of these technologies better suit your ecosystem, evaluate the challenges your workplace is experiencing.
VR and AR thrive in fields of research and development, design, review, education, and training. MR’s combination of the physical world and the digital world is making notable changes in various industries, including medical, education and research, manufacturing, design, and construction. XR being the comprehensive umbrella that it is plays a more prominent role in various sectors and organizations, yielding clear benefits in numerous facets of work and business, including training, collaborative working, and marketing.
Irrespective of the technology you decide to go with, remember that every time new technology is implemented there’s a clear culture shift at the workplace, so be prepared for change.
How To Affordably Deploy AR/VR/MR/XR With Fingent
Fingent has developed strategic software solutions for businesses across the world. By initiating your projects with Fingent you are backed up by a dedicated and skilled team who work round the clock. All our processes are customer-oriented and designed to reduce the cost of business developments. Cutting-edge cloud to manage your storage, servers, and user access from one place. Set up everything fast with zero coding.
Fingent merges Augmented Reality using 3D modeling, 360-degree imaging, real-time character identification, and orientation-based tracking with our reality to form immersive and personalized solutions. We help you utilize ARCore; Google’s AR platform, to fabricate a potent user experience through Android devices and ARKit for IOS devices.
With 3D models and simple user-friendly interactions, Fingent creates a customized Virtual Reality strategy that closely binds with your business structure and objectives. We help you analyze and grasp the growing abilities of Mixed Reality to reach your customer base in the most ingenious ways and since Extended Reality is becoming the new mode of communication between business and client, Fingent has systems in place to increase awareness, engagement, and conversation and help support large-scale communication.
If you’re looking for easy and affordable ways to make your workplace future-ready, this is your shot Fingent has got you covered. Give us a call.
Streamline your business IT with InfinCE
Building a successful business is a marathon. But determination and a business growth mindset can make it happen. If you are a business owner looking for a consistent approach to growing your business, you must realize that the essence of your company is the ability to establish trust with your customers.
True, building customer trust and loyalty takes time, effort, and persistence. But when you build trust, you are turning the key to rich dividends as your customer evangelists gear up to advocate your business. In turn, it increases brand visibility, attracts more consumers, and increases revenue.
In this article, you will learn the importance of building customer trust and loyalty in the growth of your business. You will also learn how emerging technologies can help boost customer trust in 2024.
Why Building Customer Trust And Loyalty Will Matter The Most Going Ahead?
As the world battles to contain the current pandemic crisis, customer trust and loyalty are being put to the test. However, it is good to remember that this is just one of the many crises we will face in the future. Now is the time to let your customers know how important they are to you.
Customer trust and loyalty are not just important where competition is fierce. It is a brand differentiator that could make or break a business. In a way, customer trust is an “insurance policy” against any future upheavals. It can ensure your survival if you face problems in the future. It will also ensure that your business thrives when others struggle to find a foothold.
Customer trust and loyalty are also important because they are constantly bombarded with various options. And for obvious reasons, this will only increase in the future. The need to build customer trust and loyalty has heightened, thanks to the immediate effect of emerging technologies.
How Can Emerging Technologies Help Boost Customer Trust?
Technologies are continually evolving and will always impact customer trust and loyalty. The speed of this change is faster than ever now. With emerging technologies, companies must prepare by identifying those trends now and capitalizing on them before it is too late.
The influence of technology can be a powerful catalyst to build customer trust and loyalty. Businesses that do not choose to move with emerging technologies will be left behind and may have to face business disruption.
Today, customers are becoming more tech-smart. To boost customer loyalty and trust, businesses must stay up-to-date with emerging technologies. Here is how you can boost customer trust:
- Technologies can help you keep your lines of communication open, fostering relationships
- Converse where and when you need
- Create a high level of personalization to promote brand loyalty
- Create an experience both online and in real-time
Read more: Customer Retail Software Solution: Everything you need to know!
Technologies That Help Drive Customer Loyalty Through Unique Experiences
There are many opportunities to engage your customers and build their trust and loyalty. But that is only possible if your business is equipped with the right tools to capitalize on it. Consider some:
1. Chatbots
The influence of technology offers companies solutions to meet higher expectations. AI-powered chatbots enable businesses to better communicate with their customers. It helps you to be there with relevant messaging and information whenever the customers choose to reach out.
This has a significant impact on customer trust. It is noted that customers are increasingly willing to buy a product through chatbots.
Additionally, chatbots provide detailed records of conversations with your customers. This provides you with data that can be analyzed to gain insights on customer pain points. This data can also be used to improve your products and services.
2. Voice capabilities
Voice capabilities can be relied on to engage customer loyalty and facilitate actions. These capabilities can serve as a useful tool to the customer as it leverages data to make customers’ task simpler and more seamless.
Voice-enabled technology enables your company to do all these more efficiently. Besides, it appeals to busy customers as it indulges them in a quick shopping experience. This builds customer trust and loyalty and encourages repeat business.
3. Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual and Augmented Reality (AR and VR) technologies are game-changers in the way businesses communicate and interact with their customers. They enable customers to educate themselves and solve their issues better than ever before.
Additionally, these technologies will provide your sales reps better understanding of what the customer is going through. Thus, it increases their empathy and enables them to come up with better solutions for your customers’ issues.
Virtual and Augmented Reality are enabling the visual journey of the customer allowing them to search by looking at an object. This can open to new experiences. The resulting data can be used for innovative engagement in the future.
Read more: 7 Ways Augmented Reality will Transform Experiential Marketing!
4. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a tool for tracking and managing a customers’ journey. It makes communication between marketing teams more efficient.
A CRM tool allows retailers to analyze huge amounts of customer information including the feelings that drive customer behavior. This enables your company to establish a deeper connection with your customers. Using this technology will help you craft more highly personalized messaging and new features to your services and products.
5. Virtual showrooms
Many shoppers still prefer the in-store experience. Virtual reality allows customers to see a 3D rendering of a kitchen or other renovations. It also allows customers to pick and choose the items they would like in their virtual room.
This technology can also be useful in purchasing clothing from the comfort of their homes as it allows them to mix and match.
6. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help your business stay a cut above the rest. It is a great tool to build customer loyalty and trust.
AI can provide you with needed information to understand the purchase behavior and interaction patterns of your customers. This information can be leveraged to design products that suit your customers.
Natural Language Processing (NLP), computer vision, and deep learning can be used to analyze a vast database of visuals and text. You can use this information to identify the main themes in colors, patterns, styles, and so on of your products. These findings can be implemented while designing future products.
Gear Up for Exciting Opportunities
Emerging technologies uncover exciting opportunities for businesses and are poised to increase economic growth by building customer loyalty and trust. Are you in on it? Give us a call and let’s get talking.
- Introduction
- A Brief History Of Metaverse
- A Simple Definition Of Metaverse
- Metaverse And The Future Of Work
- Metaverse Applications In Our Work World
- Potential Concerns Around Metaverse
- Metaverse: What Lies Ahead?
Introduction
Metaverse is the next generation of the internet. Blending the elements of virtual reality, augmented reality, online games, social media, and cryptocurrencies; metaverse ushers in a novel phase of interconnected virtual experience, that reimagines the future of work. This blog will take you through everything you need to know about Metaverse – from history to how it will impact the future of work!
A Brief History Of Metaverse
In his 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash, author Neal Stephenson coined the phrase metaverse – probably the first time most of us heard it. The novel portrayed metaverse as a successor to the internet, depicting the author’s vision of how a virtual reality-based Internet might evolve in the immediate future.
Today, the metaverse is moving from hypothetical to real, inspiring enterprise tycoons to rebrand and innovate. The recent rebranding of Facebook, Inc. into Meta Platforms, Inc. was solely inspired by metaverse. In the Founder’s Letter, Mark Zuckerberg underscores that “We are at the beginning of the next chapter for the internet. The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.”
Ever since the publication of Snow Crash, the notion of metaverse has enjoyed constant popularity. The concept has highly inspired the creators of online virtual worlds such as Second Life and Active Worlds. The success of Snow Crash was such that it was made a mandatory read for Microsoft’s Xbox development team.
Until recently, the application of metaverse was restricted to internet-based video games and social media. Metaverse was predominantly used to improve the quality of immersion in virtual reality environments. The past two years witnessed a tremendous shift in the work culture, with remote and hybrid workspaces becoming the new normal. The application of metaverse technology in improving work productivity, creating interactive learning environments, and facilitating virtual reality home tours is on the brink and companies like Fingent are already on the track with best-in-class POCs and ace development skills.
Read more: What’s in Store for Real Estate this 2022?
A Simple Definition Of Metaverse
Metaverse is coined by joining two words; “meta” meaning beyond and “verse” referring to the universe. Literally, metaverse stands for a virtual world that lies on top of, or beyond the physical world. Metaverse is an extension of the real world that is amplified by emerging technologies such as extended reality (a combination of VR, AR, and MR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, AI, IoT, and more.
Metaverse And The Future Of Work
When the COVID-19 pandemic swept industries and stomped economies, the internet, and other work-from-home technologies helped us stay resilient and ensure business continuity. Many industries became technology-intensive, such as education, retail, conferencing & event management, etc. Metaverse will further transform these sectors by implementing virtual reality (VR) based wearables that allow users to experience and/or purchase the services with the help of immersive virtualization (without leaving the premises of their homes).
Imagine you want to go for a movie with a colleague after working hours or hang out with a friend for dinner. With metaverse, you’ll have alternatives for all these social interactions, especially when you want to avoid the hassles of a physical word, such as social distancing.
Metaverse will significantly transform the way we work by leveraging VR:
- Offers multiple choices with respect to work location and ways of working. Employees will no longer be confined to their workstation cubicles.
- Metaverse helps build a centralized digital work environment that will smoothen the transition to remote working.
- Freedom from tedious daily commutes, in-person meetings, expensive business trips, and professional office apparel.
- Guarantees physical safety from getting exposed to harmful viruses like COVID-19 or Omicron. Virtual collaboration reduces the spread of transmittable illnesses.
- Makes idea-sharing and collaboration more effective and accessible than ever. Easy to join virtual meetings and participate actively in discussions by gaining a near-physical experience.
- Eliminates the risks and hazards present in the physical world and makes the workspace safe and convenient for employees.
Case Study: How Fingent enabled a leading educational establishment to innovate their campus visits by leveraging virtual reality. Download now!
Metaverse in real-life: Two leading examples
One of the best examples to demonstrate the impact of metaverse on the future of work is the recently launched Horizon Workrooms. Introduced by Facebook, Horizon Workrooms is a virtual meeting space that allows you to collaborate with your coworkers virtually without feeling isolated or deprived of workplace interactions during remote work. The underlying virtual reality technology will help you join meetings as an avatar or dial into the virtual room using your computer through video call. Powered by VR and delivered via the Oculus Store, the Horizon Workrooms aims to leverage VR as a new computing platform that will reimagine the future of work.
Another notable example of the metaverse in a workplace is the latest Microsoft Mesh app. Mesh leverages a mixed reality experience that allows you to connect, share, and collaborate with your coworkers in immersive, near-natural virtual environments. Using Mesh, you can create AI-enabled 3D avatars that enable you to join meetings, visualize and annotate content, and use 3D objects to explain and point out features. The purpose is to make users feel like they are physically present in the meeting room. Currently, Mesh-enabled experiences are available for HoloLens and AltspaceVR users.
Metaverse Applications In Our Work World
In no time, the COVID-19 pandemic forced corporate employees and industries to shift from physical to virtual. Platforms like Zoom and Slack facilitated remote collaborations far and wide, and across different time zones. Organizations are discovering the new and improved possibilities offered by virtual collaboration tools, making metaverse an inevitable technology in the future of work.
Case Study: Fingent develops a unique mixed reality application for a leading university by combining facial recognition technology. Read more.
Top three industry applications of metaverse:
1. Real estate: In 2020, Upland.me, the leading blockchain-based metaverse tagged to real-world addresses sold a virtual property of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for a mammoth 23,000,000 UPX (US$ 23,000) in their year-end auction. While Upland’s target was to sell the virtual property at a premium of 65%, the deal secured them a massive premium of 368%.
Real estate brokerage firms and property trading companies can leverage metaverse to combine physical and virtual worlds, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade simulated properties that are mapped to real addresses. The application of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies will ensure the safety of transactions and the true possession of digital assets in the world of the metaverse.
2. Commerce: Fashion brand Gucci’s digital-only Dionysus bag was sold at a higher price than its physical version during an auction on Roblox- the leading video game platform. While the bag’s physical retail value was $3,400, it commanded a virtual resale price of $4,115, despite its non-transferability outside the Roblox environment.
Metaverse will offer consumers a more interactive in-store experience that allows them to try new products and explore novel brands using AR and VR sets. It’s a step ahead of the current e-commerce applications that will give way to 3D virtual shopping powered by metaverse.
Read more: Extended Reality: Six ways it is improving customer experience and helping brands grow
3. Education: A recent study reveals that around 91% of the world’s student population have experienced educational disruptions over the past two years. While emerging technologies accelerated the transition to online education, the academic world is still in a constant chase for immersive, inclusive, and interactive learning technology that can improve the educational ecosystem.
Education is a key focus area of the metaverse. Facebook recently announced that it will partner with Coursera and edX to develop a versatile AR curriculum. In the 2021 ASU GSV Summit, the Arizona State University exhibited a VR classroom that allows students to virtually explore a sanctuary of endangered species, which aroused the curiosity of the participants. Subjects like astrophysics, biology, surgery procedures, anthropology, etc. can be taught more effectively by leveraging metaverse.
Read more: How virtual reality improves the standard of medical education and training
Potential Concerns Around Metaverse
Statista reports that an average of 34 million units of VR headsets would be sold by 2024. As industries increasingly embrace VR to meet both enterprise and consumer demands, the universal adoption of full-fledged metaverse applications doesn’t seem fair. However, we still need to overcome a few challenges that slow down metaverse adoption.
- New verification methods should be developed to solve identity theft and reputation loss in the metaverse. This is important to prevent crimes such as facial forging, footage and voice tampering, etc.
- Any online environment isn’t devoid of data and privacy concerns. It’s vital to improve data security and privacy protection methods to keep your data safe in the metaverse world.
- Robust digital currency and payment systems should be developed to ensure the security of transactions in the metaverse virtual marketplace. To ensure safe trading within metaverse, built-in transaction verification systems should be implemented.
- As metaverse is expected to bring more people from different countries together in a virtual collaborative space, it’s important for lawmakers to devise the legislation that governs virtual interactions. Countries need to focus on setting up virtual legal domains and making the digital space safe for users.
- Upgrading the application of metaverse from the realms of gaming, fun, and entertainment to the domains of learning, corporate work, and industries requires careful planning. The progression should be correlated with both the business outcome as well as the demands of customers and employees.
Read more: Reality technology services offered by Fingent
Metaverse: What Lies Ahead?
Though metaverse is advancing to take us to the threshold of a virtual universe, the technology is still at a nascent stage. As more tech giants and startups join the bandwagon, we can expect that metaverse will combine the best of reality technologies like AR, VR, and MR to transform the future of work. John Riccitiello, the CEO of Unity Technologies (developer of Unity game engine) observes that by 2030, Virtual Reality headsets will be as common as today’s gaming consoles.
Amidst the challenges that choke businesses during the pandemic, promising experiments around metaverse prove that remote work is a huge problem that VR could resolve. Industries that were hitherto dependent on on-site and field activities are taking a different path by embracing VR. We can expect that metaverse will soon be the efficiency driver in the new normal of work. If you have any queries on metaverse or need a demo on how VR can help you do business better, write to us.
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Explore InfinCEAccording to a study by Autism Speak and the CDC, 1 in 59 children in the U.S has autism. While children and adults with autism have verbal, behavioral, and social skills challenges, they also have unique identities and preferences like anyone else. Some people with autism who are minimally verbal or non-verbal use iPad and voice apps to speak for them. Also, they use iPads as an educational tool every day. Tech like the iPad has led both parents and the autism support team to embrace virtual reality. Today, more and more counselors, therapists, teachers, and parents are leveraging Virtual Reality as a therapy tool to help autistic people to communicate and connect with the world around them better. For example, the Center for BrainHealth and the Child Study Center at Yale University’s School of Medicine used VR to help young adults with autism achieve economic and social independence.
Additionally, the technology is helping non-autistic people clear some misconceptions about autism and understand the reality of living with the condition.
While VR has been gaining attention recently, it was used for therapy as early as 1996. The studies in the 90s were promising, but VR was expensive, and headsets were bulky and uncomfortable, which was a major hurdle for people with sensory disorders. All these issues prevented VR therapies from becoming a viable option for people with autism.
Today, VR technology is not just cheap and accessible. The VR headsets are lighter and more comfortable too. So, researchers are studying the potential of Virtual Reality as a treatment tool for autism more than ever before.
Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves the Standards of Medical Education and Training
Uses of VR in Autism Care
1. VR Apps
At the University of Haifa, researchers have created a VR app that trains kids to cross a road safely. This app simulates what it would be like to cross the road with cars and traffic lights. The interesting part of the app is that it allows kids to practice crossing the street without the real-world consequence of being hit by a car. Kids can practice each step as long they need and reduce the risk while learning a new skill.
Floreo is a VR learning and social skills app that therapists, parents, schools can use and support staff to help kids with autism. This app helps children learn social skills like reciprocity and planning for unexpected situations through social stories. It also helps them detach emotionally with interactive virtual sensory tools. The app can be installed on a smartphone or tablet with a Google Cardboard headset. It comes with a good data capture system making it easier to track individual goals.
2. VR Games
Teachers recommend that parents play games with autistic kids to help them learn to mimic skills like sharing and back and forth communication. Generally, autistic people can find it difficult to make eye contact or have a two-way conversation between people. This struggle can unintentionally push others away. VR games such as Playground, Astropolis, and non-VR software such as SketchUp use the VR motivator as both play and learning opportunities.
- Astropolis puts players in a spaceship to fly, using resources to ensure space colonies are happy and functioning. Players can collect and manage the resources and defend the colony as well.
- Maritime Defender is yet another mini-game they can practice letting pilots through a wormhole or not allowing them to pass through. This helps with decision-making and control-based skills.
- Stellar Prospector and Starjack improve perception and thinking, and autistic people are encouraged to play this game.
- Sketchup, a 3D architectural and designing software, helps draft objects and structures. It gives autistic kids and adults a creative outlet not found in any school setting.
Other VR games such as Vivecraft, Tilt Brush, and Medium also help build things in 3-D and 360-degrees without the real-world challenges like running out of supplies or messing up, or having to start fresh. These games do not get autistic people direct jobs in coding, architecture, art, and design, but ignite their passion and encourage them to pursue a career in those fields.
3. Tackling Phobias
Virtual reality can tackle phobias in autistic kids, such as fear of classrooms, balloons, animals, and public transport. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(CBT), along with visualization and imagination, can combat the effects of these phobias.
Using VR, participants enter a “Blue Room” and navigate through a 360-degrees video projection of a scene usually accompanied by audio that replicates the object or experience they fear. Here the participants do not have to wear goggles as the therapist manipulates the scene using iPad controls. Also, the therapist uses CBT techniques to calm the participants when exposed to their phobias.
Read more: Top AR & VR Trends to Transform Ecommerce in 2022!
Conclusion
The VR technology enables therapists, medical professionals, and parents to leverage it to help people with autism learn differently and improve their communication skills.
At Fingent top custom software development company, we have the expertise to create apps, games, and software that can help autistic people connect and communicate with people around them. For more information, reach out to our team.
While Augmented Reality(AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have existed for quite some time, it has only recently had a revolutionary influence on the corporate sector. However, in the next few years, both AR and VR will compel every business to leverage it in some form to drive growth. According to Statista, the AR-VR market will grow up to $209 billion by 2022 worldwide. Additionally, the report states that the AR and VR application downloads are expected to reach 5.5 billion by next year.
A recent study suggests that consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that leverages immersive technologies to market themselves. AR and VR technologies help customers explore virtual showrooms, touch, feel and experience products and completely transform the shopping experience. From a 360-degree catalog to an engaging digital experience, both AR and VR technologies can help shoppers to immerse themselves into the Ecommerce experience and at the same time accelerate sales and drive growth.
Read more: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality Detailed with Real-life Examples
Benefits of AR and VR
According to reports, about 78.65% of shoppers abandon their carts before completing their purchase. This shows the need for new ways to persuade customers to go ahead with the items in their carts and make the payment. Also, the pandemic has changed the customer behavior towards Ecommerce immensely, and customers now want to interact with your products digitally before visiting your store.
Sephora, IKEA, and MOSCOT are a few Ecommerce brands already using AR and VR to help convert prospective customers to clients.
Here are a few benefits!
1. Reduce friction in the online buyer journey
While the pandemic has accelerated Ecommerce adoption, some friction in the online buyer journey still exists. AR and VR help reduce that friction. Both AR and VR technologies enable consumers to find products quickly and try them on before purchasing them. Customers can also use the VTO technology to find answers to their queries without speaking to the customer service team.
Put simply, these immersive technologies disrupt customer experience completely and help convert a prospect to a client.
2. Improves digital marketing efforts
Facebook is piloting AR Ecommerce ads, and Google plans to incorporate AR product images into both paid and organic search results. Going ahead, AR and VR may improve the online marketing efforts of businesses.
3. Reduce returns
The ‘try-before-you-buy’ ability of AR and VR technology gives shoppers the chance to visualize a product and even try it on virtually, making them more confident in their purchasing decision. This eliminates the need to buy several versions of the same product and thus helps reduce returns, especially in the fashion industry.
Read more: What are 3D Web Configurators? How do they Boost Ecommerce Sales and Drive Customer Satisfaction?
Top 6 Ecommerce AR-VR Trends for 2024
1. Virtual Showrooms
Virtual stores are going to change the way people shop. A virtual showroom converts an empty room into a digital one completely and helps customers explore a variety of products. VR glasses allow customers to view distinct products along with their characteristics just as they would in a physical store.
For example, Kia, an automotive brand, is already taking advantage of VR’s benefits in its Ecommerce. Their customers can go through different car models virtually and choose a car easily. In addition, Kia allows their prospective clients to drive their dream cars on a 1-1 scale.
2. Virtual ‘try-on’
By 2024, it is estimated that a vast majority of Ecommerce stores will incorporate more virtual try-on technologies. This will help customers with what they’re buying. For example, the AR-embedded mirrors enable customers to ‘try on’ their desired clothes or shoes without actually wearing them.
While the virtual try-on solutions are popular in clothing and shoe stores, it is now available for furniture, makeup, eyeglasses, and accessories.
3. In-store Navigation
Augmented Reality makes it possible for customers to easily tour a shopping mall and find what they have been looking for exactly. In-store navigation powered by AR mostly comes in the form of a mobile app. These apps leverage advanced programming language features such as Python try-catch to provide users with much more than just AR routing.
AR-driven apps can help shoppers find an optimized shopping route, show the desired product’s exact location, and even guide them to gifts and discounts sections. For example, Lowe, America’s leading home improvement brand, uses an in-store navigation app to help customers shop conveniently.
4. AR Filters
Many businesses are leveraging AR filters to help their customers visualize products and make informed purchase decisions. Customers can try on products such as sunglasses, makeup products, and more using AR filters.
Warby Parker Sunglasses Company and Sephora are using AR technology to win their customers. Sephora has developed a virtual assistant that uses facial recognition to help customers try on different colors of makeup.
5. VR for In-store Experience
With customer behavior shifting to online shopping, Ecommerce businesses must consider investing in VR to close the gap between traditional stores and online shopping. With 3-D products, customers can move around in a VR store, interact with friends and even ask a virtual staff member for support if need be.
6. Interactive User Manuals
In years to come, interactive user manuals will become the norm, especially for online stores that sell a steep learning curve of a coffee machine. Customers can simply scan the product and get access to a virtual walkthrough of the product and understand its features, set up process, and more.
Read more: How Top Brands Embrace Augmented Reality for Immersive Customer Experiences
Wrapping Up
From furniture, luxury cars to makeup, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality have brought about tangible transformations. As they deliver real and measurable results to online brands, they are indeed here to stay!
As a professional software development company, we help you realize unique concepts and projects. With our VR and AR services, we help create unusual solutions for your business. Our cost-effective AR/VR apps enable businesses to boost operational efficiency and drive user engagement. As a result, our solutions help businesses unlock unique opportunities that scale business growth and efficiency.
Leverage AR/VR for your Ecommerce business today! Our team of custom software development experts at Fingent can create the best solution for you. Call us now!
Extended Reality (XR), is an umbrella term that encompasses immersive technologies – AR, VR, and MR that merge the physical and virtual worlds. While XR technologies are still widely used for gaming, social media and entertainment, it is being implemented extensively in industries and supplementing humans in unimaginable ways. Experts believe that the XR market will grow from 33.0 billion dollars in 2021 to 125.2 billion dollars by 2026, at a CAGR of 30.6%. This blog will take you through the top 6 reasons why your business needs to implement the rising capabilities of Extended Reality!
What is Extended Reality?
When put simply, XR is reality tech that covers VR, AR, and MR to extend reality by merging the real and virtual worlds. Here’s a quick look at what VR, AR, and MR are!
- Augmented Reality(AR): AR connects the physical environment with the virtual world through tablets, smartphones, smart lenses, and AR glasses to augment real-life scenarios.
- Virtual Reality (VR): This technology merges the physical environment with the digital one to create a whole new virtual world. Virtual Reality headsets and head-mounted displays help provide immersive experiences of the digital world.
- Mixed Reality(MR): With the help of MR headsets, mixed reality brings together the virtual and the physical environments to deliver unique experiences.
The term Extended Reality first popped up in the 1960s, when Charles Wyckoff filed a patent for his silver-halide XR film. The film was intended for photographing bright light events such as nuclear explosions. More recently, XR has moved into the mainstream with a few enterprises leveraging it to launch applications aimed at extending the customer experience.
Read more: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality Detailed with Real-life Examples
Industries Transformed by Extended Reality
AR, VR, and MR are developing at a rapid rate and transforming the way businesses are operating, communicating, and collaborating. Here are some of the business industries that have undergone a drastic change with these technologies.
- Marketing and advertising
- Healthcare
- Education and training
- Manufacturing and engineering
- Real estate
- Retail
- Gaming
- Art
XR offers endless possibilities and so any field can benefit by leveraging XR into their business processes.
Reasons Why You Need to Leverage XR Technologies for Your Business
1. Cultivates brand awareness
With changing customer demands and fierce competition, it is getting difficult to attract potential customers. Simply launching new products and services is not enough if you want to grow your business.
XR technology helps deliver a unique experience for users, foster consumer loyalty, and build brand awareness. For example, Gucci offers AR-fueled apparel and accessories try-on app that encourages users to try their accessories before buying thereby providing a stand-alone experience for users.
XR technology not only helps capture the attention of your customers but also promotes a positive experience with the brand.
2. Better customer experience
Customer experience is important for the success of any marketing strategy. XR’s ability to deliver immersive experiences will help you connect with your customers better and establish deeper emotional connections. XR helps transport your customers to different places and even attend live events without leaving the comfort of their homes.
L’Oreal leveraged AR technology to help their customers ‘try’ skincare products before buying and saw its conversion rate triple.
3. Increases customer engagement
As per a report by Deloitte, 90% of the companies are implementing AR and VR technology in their business. Another report reveals that 40% of customers are willing to pay more if they can experience it through Augmented Reality technology. Yet another report reveals that 58% of customers are more likely to buy a product if they have tried it out.
These statistics suggest that extended reality technology must be implemented in your business if you want to grow. XR allows customers to get detailed information and visualization about the products and services. It enables them to try out various products in various combinations and even test patterns and colors before purchasing them.
With XR technology, brands can increase engagement rate significantly and attract more customers and also provide them with a positive experience.
Read more: Augmented Reality Vs Virtual Reality – The Future Technology
4. Offers convenience
There’s no denying that online shopping is convenient and now with the pandemic forcing people to stay indoors most of the time, it is only becoming more popular. XR helps brands improve the shopping experience and also makes it less time-consuming. It helps consumers find what they are looking for faster and eliminate uncertainty from purchase decisions.
IKEA, for example, allows consumers to use their Place app and place a piece of furniture in their home using their phone. This improves the level of convenience, delivers a better customer experience, and eliminates any uncertainty before purchase.
5. Smarter Libraries
Data is the key to thrive today’s digital era. XR technologies place data in the context such that users can get better results.
For instance, you can use smart glasses to get a visual walkthrough to understand the true impact of the data collected instead of poring through spreadsheets and dashboard metrics for hours. XR technologies can help you make better and informed business decisions.
6. Create positive associations
Extended Reality provides brands with endless opportunities to create and implement emotional campaigns for their products. Based on the visual cues you include in your brand campaigns, you could encourage consumers to conclude your brand’s qualities.
XR helps connect with your audience in a way that activates their emotions and thus helps build a positive brand association. This will ensure consumers prefer your brand over others and establish loyalty. North Face, for example, launched an immersive VR experience of the Nepal landscape to its customers to identify with the brand’s identity.
Read more: Accelerating AR/VR Adoption Among Customers
Takeaway
Today, customers expect an intuitive experience from their brands and XR is becoming the new form of a conversation between brands and customers. Using immersive technologies, enterprises can nurture a culture of digital transformation and increase efficiency and profitability in the digital space.
Driven by immersive technologies, we at Fingent top software development company, can help your brand increase awareness, engagement, and conversion. We have systems in place to help support large-scale communication. If you have a project in mind, we can help convert it to reality. Call us today!