After unprecedented consumer shifts during the COVID-19 pandemic, the retail industry barely had a chance to stabilize before the age of immersive technology began. And as new terms like the metaverse, extended reality, and digital twins entered the lexicon, many retailers wondered how to keep up with the changes.
The good news is, the upgraded technology infrastructure many brands implemented to keep up with the pandemic’s digital demands has paved the way for this new era of retail.
Processes, workflows, and consumer experiences that once relied on in-person collaboration or occasions have already been overhauled for digital platforms. And brands are learning that they must continue to create strategies that are nimble enough to withstand the ebb and flow of shifting consumer expectations.
Using real-time 3D, retailers are now synchronizing the digital and physical into a consistent brand experience. Here’s how:
Globe-Trotter and eBay are among leading retailers that have already transformed their strategies with immersive technology. Learn more about the type of interactive experiences you can use to engage your audience and stay ahead of the competition.
As the retail landscape evolves, consumer spending in online channels continues to grow. With only images of products to guide them, consumers purchase products online and return what doesn’t work. This can have a significant environmental impact, as consumer returns are responsible for the yearly emission of 4.7 million metric tons of CO2.
With 3D virtual try-on experiences, consumers can use an accurately sized digital human avatar based on their measurements and body type. This enables them to get a better sense of how a garment will fit and which size to purchase. More accurate sizing leads to a better purchase experience and an estimated 25–30% decrease in unnecessary returns.
Real-time 3D in real life: Deckers Brands
Fashion and performance footwear company Deckers Brands reimagined the way they interact with and engage their customers. Instead of creating advertisements using static images of their footwear, Deckers provided a more immersive experience using Snapchat’s AR try-on.
"3D has led to better decisions, more accurate predictions, and faster time to market. This is helping us save time and money, and make decisions a lot faster."
“There are no limitations to what you can explore within those environments to communicate your brand and offer an unforgettable experience to your consumer.”
Product images continue to influence online shoppers’ purchasing decisions. But acquiring the necessary volume of images is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive. Due to the importance of personalization and customization, the number of product variants has multiplied.
A virtual photography infrastructure, built using real-time 3D technology, enables brands and retailers to produce the volume of images required without traditional methods like costly photoshoots or offline rendering tools.
Unity Industry helps marketing or content teams create 3D assets in multiple configurations, with lighting scenes and camera angles applied. This tool for industry customers enables nontechnical team members to generate 3D assets at scale, no developer or technical artist required.
Real-time 3D in real life: Onanoff
As a small company with fewer than 30 employees, Onanoff, a global leader in kid-friendly audio equipment, realized they had to be resourceful to successfully compete with bigger companies in their industry. To keep up with their competitors’ customization abilities, the company partnered with Visionaries 777 to create a highly efficient content pipeline with real-time 3D rendering at the core.
"Unity gives us the capabilities of a big company with the agility of a small one.”
Onanoff reported that its digital media production process enabled them to offer 400% more design capacity for customer personalization. They were also able to get to market 2.5 months earlier when using real-time 3D rendering tools versus traditional offline rendering. Workflow improvements like these are more cost efficient and can help teams meet customer expectations for product imagery faster.
Consumer buying behavior has changed, with a rapid growth in demand for more engaging, personalized experiences. To keep up, brands have invested in immersive marketing experiences like 3D product configurators.
Interactive 3D product configurators enable companies to give their customers the ability to immersively explore products, while deciding on and purchasing the features that matter most to them.
Customers that interact with a product configurator tend to:
3D product configurators are built by gathering product data, such as color, size, and materials, and using a data transformation tool to consolidate the data into a single centralized platform, like Unity. When built with Unity, 3D product configurators can be deployed to more than 18 platforms, enabling customers to engage on web, iOS, Android, PC, Mac, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and more.
Real-time 3D in real life: Church’s Footwear
Video courtesy of SmartPixels
Church’s Footwear saw the benefits of deploying an interactive 3D product configurator first-hand when it gave consumers the opportunity to customize its most iconic shoe. Created in partnership with SmartPixels, a Paris-based company specializing in product configurators, Church’s 3D product configurator contributed to nearly 50% of made-to-order sales and generated 35% higher average transaction value (ATV) than the standard retail ATV.
Ready to digitally transform your retail strategy? Get Unity Industry, featuring creation tools and enterprise-level support to transform your CAD and 3D data into immersive applications available on any device, anywhere.
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