As such businesses that are to utilize or are utilizing eCommerce as a major sales channel need to stand out from the rest of the field and understand and solve customer needs and wants better than others. Providing better ways to get information on the product and make more informed decisions can help you and your customer by presenting all the unique features of your product to your customer and the customer will know about your product in more detail so that they can make an informed decision about the purchase. That is where latest technologies such as AR eCommerce app development comes in.

Current Shopping Experience

Right now most eCommerce companies offer apps or websites that are cross platform so that the end user can buy from anywhere and with a robust backend of their own or created through third party delivery agents, deliver the product to the end user. The major missing out that is happening especially for high ticket sales such as furniture is that customers and prospective buyers don’t get to experience or analyze the product fully as they can do in offline shops, as such high ticket sales are still carried out offline.

Right now, customers can buy products online after analyzing the product through written content and reviews and photos and videos posted by the seller.

There is a large scope for a technology that can provide a life like experience to the end users.

How AR/VR eCommerce App Development Can Help?

With AR/VR development you can provide a custom shopping experience instead of your customer just browsing on app or website. AR/VR can enhance the shopping experience of the end user by making them experience the product as if they were there and providing an experience that is close to a offline showroom.

There are certain benefits that only AR/VR can offer such as:

• Virtual trials of garments and glasses and other fashion items.
• Personalized suggestions and recommendations
• Virtual tours
• Virtual showcase of furniture for the customer’s location
• Trying on new hairstyle or makeup without actually doing it

Here are some examples of top Shopify stores utilizing AI & AR/VR technology to offer the best user experience to their users.

Industrial Applications of AR/VR for eCommerce

Let’s focus on three industries that could see the most immediate benefit in their eCommerce efforts with the help of AR/VR.

Furniture Industry AR/VR Solutions:

IKEA was a pioneer in the use of AR solutions for its furniture offerings. People could see how the furniture would look like inside their homes and take an informed buying decision.

With such AR technology enabled eCommerce platforms, buyers can put the furniture virtually inside their houses and move it around, select the right place, corner and also add other furniture items to complete the interior design.

Fashion Industry AR/VR Solutions:

In fashion industry, AR is used to virtually try out garments, specs and other fashion items before buying. As garments are returned the most amongst all the eCommerce items, by allowing people to virtually try it out, return rates are reduced.

Household Items Industry AR/VR Solutions:

When people need to buy common household items such as TV, Fridge and washing machines, they need to make sure that the aesthetic of the item and the requisite space is compatible witht he device they want to buy.

Key Development Parameters for Developing eCommerce AR Development

To start setting up AR you can use Unity, configure it with ARcamera and use SDKs of Vuforia or other applicable SDKs. Setup any animations and movements in Unity and start testing your AR features.

Here are some of the key things to keep in mind when developing an AR feature for the eCommerce platform.

• Connecting products and its  variants to respective 3D models and materials.
• The viewer be responsive and adaptable to the web page or app page.
• Customizing the app and website platform for AR
• Creating an interactive, option rich menu.

Main Features for AR based eCommerce App

Social Sign Up/Login

Using existing logins from social accounts or emails for a quick signup and instant logins.

Chatbot Support

As users need to make a purchase decision, CRO activities such as chatbots can make a major difference in final conversion parameters. Even a single percentage increase in conversions can make a campaign successful.

Push Notifications

With push notifications, the store owner can stay in constant touch with the end user and inform them of latest promotions and offers.

Smart Search

With smart search, users can search for products, categorize for price, type and brand and other major categories and select the appropriate product.

In-App Camera

With in-app camera, users can upload an image to find product, scan barcodes and to generate virtual view using AR technology.

Customer Support

For common support queries, a backend customer support system can be crated that can act as a first line for initial and simple queries. Voice enabled AI and chatbots can be used here.

Multiple Payment Options

Providing all payment options makes it easy for your customer to conduct the purchase and builds trust as they can choose the paymenty method they are comfortable with.

Loyalty/Offers Programs

To entice the customers, store owners can setup promotional campaigns and offers for attracting customers and to clear past inventory.

Real Time Dashboard and Analytics

With real time dashboard, the store owner can see what;s happening in the store and can keep track of all the previous sales and customer queries.

AR Customization

WITH AR based customization, customers can create a virtual tryout of the product in question such as furniture, spectacles and garments.

Location Based AR

With location based AR, users can create an AR view in the pace that they are. By geo-tracking, the app can track where the user is and create an augmented view.

Technology Stack Required for AR based eCommerce Development

Here is a proposed tech stack for AR based eCommerce app.

1. AR App Development Platforms – AR Core, AR Kit, Vuforia, Wikitude, Easy AR
2. 3D Modeling Softwares – Maya, Blender, SketchUp, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Onshape
3. AR Devices – Mobile Devices, Tablets, Smart Glasses, Virtual Retinal Displays
4. Mobile App Platforms – Android, iOS
5. Cloud Environment & CDN – Amazon, Cloudflare, MaxCDN
6. AR App Development Engine – Unity3D, Unreal Engine
7. Payments Gateways – Paypal, Braintree, E-Wallets, Stripes
8. Push Notification – Twillo, Push.io
9. SMS, Phone Verification – Nexmo, Twilio
10. Email Marketing – Mail Chimp
11. Managing Email – Mandrill
12. Database Technologies – Datastax, Mongo DB, Cassandra, HBase, Mail Chimp Integration
13. Real Time Analytics – Apache Storm, Google Cloud Data Flow
14. AR Standalone Platform – WebGL (2D/3D Interactive Experience)
15. AR Universal Operating System – Debian
16. Streaming Media System – Helix Universal Server, Nimble Streamer, Wowza streaming

Conclusion

AR apps are being enabled by all major platforms. IOS 14 has some special features for AR. Android and many cross platform platforms such as Flutter are integrating AR features inside their platform as well. As such , Apps that offer AR features will become increasingly available on the market.

Drop us a line below if you are looking to develop your own AR solutions for your eCommerce business.

The post Why You Should Opt For AR Enabled eCommerce App Development appeared first on Top Mobile & Web Application Development Company in USA, UK, Australia & India | IT Path Solutions.

WWDC In June 2017, Apple revealed ARKit, a world-famous for AR application development. After that in a few months, Google revealed AR Core, which was acquired from google Tango an Indoor Mapping Project. Google’s response to ARKit and ARCore is a developer platform for the design and deployment of mind-blowing Augmented reality. With help of this SDK, users’ phones are able to understand the external environment. The amazing thing about this SDK is that it supports both Android and iOS devices.

In which device and platform ARCore feature is supported?

Supported platforms: Android version 7.0 and higher is supported and on iOS 11 or higher is supported.

What are the core elements of ARCore?

Motion Tracking:

AR core figure outs the position as well as the orientation of a virtual simulated 3D object in the actual world, using the phone’s camera as well as sensor data. It is termed as object pose. When a mobile phone is running, AR Core tracks a virtual object pause in the scene. This allows him to present these items in the right aspect depending on the mobile’s position.

Environmental Understanding:

By altering input from the device’s camera, the AR core encounters horizontal as well as vertical level surfaces such as a table, a floor, or a wall. These discovered surfaces are termed as planes. The AR core affixes a virtual object to the aircraft at a specified location as well as orientation. These fixed points are termed as anchors.

Light Evaluation:

The AR core understands the light of the environment. Virtual items can then be adjusted to the average fury and color to keep them in the same condition as their surroundings. This prepares virtual objects to look more realistic.

How to create an ARCore application?

1) You will need Android Studio 3.1 or higher. We want to create a new project with support targeting API 24: Android 7.0.

2) Setup the Gradle to support JavaVersion 8, as java version 8 is necessary to build ARCore Application. Below is the line you need to place in build.gradle. After that Sync the project.

android {

   …

   compileOptions {

    sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8

    targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8

   }

}

3) Now you need to add ARCore dependency in project. By adding those dependencies the ARCore components will be accessible in the project. Below is the line you need to place in build.gradle.

dependencies {

   …

   implementation “com.google.ar.sceneform.ux:sceneform-ux:1.4.0”

}

Note: Since this is an augmented reality app, we have to ask the user for access to the camera. The Play Store uses a specific AR meta tag that filters applications for users who don’t have an ARCore-enabled device.

4) Then you need to add a below meta tag in AndroidManifest.xml, which would show you app in the category of ar supported app

<uses-permission android:name=”android.permission.CAMERA” />

    <uses-feature

        android:name=”android.hardware.camera.ar”

        android:required=”true” />

5) As you now know that the project is ready to add 3D Objects, but still one thing is remaining. Now you need to add Google Sceneform Tools Plugin in Android studio.

After adding this plugin your android studio would be able to read 3D AR objects

6) Now it’s time to place 3D Object inside the application. You may ask your designer/graphics artist to create a custom 3D Obj as per your requirement. OR also can use 3D Obj which is provided by Google.

Note: The Sceneform android studio plugin supports an OBJ, and FBX, and a glTF file formats only.

7) Create sample data/ directory inside app. The next task is right-clicking downloaded 3D Obj and select “Import Sceneform Assert”. Let’s say for example, in-app have added Earth Object then it would look like:

8) Now it’s a time of implementation in code. First of all, you need to insert ARFragment in your activity’s layout file.

 <fragment

        android:id=”@+id/sceneform_fragment”

        android:name=”com.google.ar.sceneform.ux.ArFragment”

        android:layout_width=”match_parent”

        android:layout_height=”match_parent”

        app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf=”parent”

        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf=”parent”

        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf=”parent”

        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf=”parent” />

the placed 3D Object now need to render in this fragment.

9) Now task is to insert AR Obj in ARFragment, let’s say in app have button and on click of that need now to place 3D Obj in the actual world.

addObject(Uri.parse(“NOVELO_EARTH.sfb”))

 private fun addObject(model: Uri) {

        val frame = arFragment.arSceneView.arFrame

        val point = getScreenCenter()

        if (frame != null) {

            val hits = frame.hitTest(point.x.toFloat(), point.y.toFloat())

            for (hit in hits) {

                val trackable = hit.trackable

                if (trackable is Plane && trackable.isPoseInPolygon(hit.hitPose)) {

                    placeObject(arFragment, hit.createAnchor(), model)

                    break

                }

            }

        }

    }

  private fun placeObject(fragment: ArFragment, anchor: Anchor, model: Uri) {

        ModelRenderable.builder()

                .setSource(fragment.context, model)

                .build()

                .thenAccept {

                    addNodeToScene(fragment, anchor, it)

                }

                .exceptionally {

                    Toast.makeText(this@MainActivity, “Error”, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show()

                    return@exceptionally null

                }

    }

10) Now from the above code object is setup to load in AR Fragment, but then you need to add properties to Object. Let’s say you want it to be resizable or movable. then you need to add a node to the scene. This adds properties to 3D Object also provides a way to render in ARScene in the screen.

private fun addNodeToScene(fragment: ArFragment, anchor: Anchor, renderable: ModelRenderable) {

        val anchorNode = AnchorNode(anchor)

        // TransformableNode means the user to move, scale and rotate the model

        val transformableNode = TransformableNode(fragment.transformationSystem)

        transformableNode.renderable = renderable

        transformableNode.setParent(anchorNode)

        fragment.arSceneView.scene.addChild(anchorNode)

        transformableNode.select()

    }

11) You are now set, but the most important thing is first you need to detect the floor to place objects. For that, you need to create listeners to check the scene. 

arFragment.arSceneView.scene.addOnUpdateListener { frameTime ->

            arFragment.onUpdate(frameTime)

            onUpdate()

        }

  // Updates the tracking state

    private fun onUpdate() {

        updateTracking()

        // Check if the devices gaze is hitting a plane detected by ARCore

        if (isTracking) {

            val hitTestChanged = updateHitTest()

            if (hitTestChanged) {

                showFab(isHitting)

            }

        }

    }

12) So with this are floor mesh will be detected and then you can check is Tracking live or not.

  // Performs frame.HitTest and returns if a hit is detected

    private fun updateHitTest(): Boolean {

        val frame = arFragment.arSceneView.arFrame

        val point = getScreenCenter()

        val hits: List<HitResult>

        val wasHitting = isHitting

        isHitting = false

        if (frame != null) {

            hits = frame.hitTest(point.x.toFloat(), point.y.toFloat())

            for (hit in hits) {

                val trackable = hit.trackable

                if (trackable is Plane && trackable.isPoseInPolygon(hit.hitPose)) {

                    isHitting = true

                    break

                }

            }

        }

        return wasHitting != isHitting

    }

So you’re all set, when you just tap the button after the phone detects the floor, then the 3D object will fall into the AR fragment and the transform properly all Object to resize or touch drag.

I hope you enjoyed this brief intro to ARCore with android.

The post Augmented Reality Development Made Easy With ARCore appeared first on Top Mobile & Web Application Development Company in USA, UK, Australia & India | IT Path Solutions.