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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS
VR & AR will rely on 5G to change the
CX inside and outside retail stores
VR and AR have the potential to shake up the customer With VR’s immersive interfaces, retailers can create
experience by individualizing retailers’ offers and task efficiencies or reduce the costs associated with
enabling customers to visualize products in different designing new products. They can also enhance the
settings. By 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in AR understanding of information through advanced
online and in-store, according to Gartner. graphical visualization and simulation technologies.
Pilots and implementation examples include Alibaba’s
“Retailers are under increasing pressure to explain the full VR shopping experience, virtual reality tours by
purpose of physical stores and take control of the Tesco, Adidas’ VR video to promote its outdoor clothing
fulfillment and return process for cross-channel collection, and eBay Australia’s partnerships with Myer
execution,” said Hanna Karki, principal research analyst to create personalized stores.
at Gartner. “At the same time, consumers are
progressively defining the value provided by the 5G mobile network technology represents an
experiences they receive from retailers. As a result of opportunity to accelerate the adoption of AR and VR in
these pressures, retailers are turning to AR and VR to stores. Gartner’s recent 5G enterprise survey indicated
offer customers a unified retail experience inside and that AR/VR applications of 5G attract the highest
outside retail stores.” expectations for becoming drivers of new revenue,
across all use cases and respondents. 5G capabilities
A 2018 Gartner survey* indicated that, by 2020, 46% of can support multiple uses cases, such as real-time
retailers planned to deploy either AR or VR solutions to rendering for immersive video, shorter download and
meet customer service experience requirements. set-up times, and extension of brands and shopping
Additionally, the technologies behind these solutions experiences beyond stores.
have moved 15 to 30 percent further along the Gartner
Hype Cycle over the past 12 months. “Gartner expects that the implementation of 5G and
AR/VR in stores will transform not only customer
“The impact of AR or VR in retail can be transformative,” engagement but also the entire product management
said Ms. Karki. “Retailers can use AR as an extension of cycle of brands,” said Sylvain Fabre, senior research
the brand experience to engage customers in immersive director at Gartner. “5G can optimize warehouse
environments and drive revenue. For example, IKEA’s resources, enhance store traffic analytics and enable
Place app enables customers to virtually ‘place’ IKEA beacons that communicate with shoppers’
products in their space. Additionally, AR can be used smartphones.” (Source: Gartner) ◊
outside the store after a sale to increase customer
satisfaction and improve loyalty.”
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