Mixed Reality Tech Perfectly Placed To Benefit From Mobile Shopping Rise

As mobile shopping continues to become the norm for many consumers - £1.5bn was spent via mobile shopping in the past 12 months - retailers and brands need the tools in place to take full advantage of the changing landscape.
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By the end of the decade nearly two thirds of ecommerce purchases - about £43bn annually - will be made via a smartphone, according to a new joint report by Google and PayPal.

If accurate, the growth in the mobile shopping market will have risen by a massive £13.5bn in just four years.

In the same report, it is predicted that of the online sales not made directly from a smartphone, £14bn will involve the use of a smartphone at some point during the research or price comparison stage.

This means that by 2020, 80% of ecommerce will involve an element of mobile activity.

One of the key technologies that can expect to benefit from, and contribute to this escalation towards mobile is mixed reality platforms.

The key concept of mixed reality in the business sphere is that it allows consumers to preview products within the real world directly in front of them, enabling them to see what items look like in different environments to judge colour and scale.

At DigitalBridge we have focussed our efforts on bringing this technology to the home décor market.

For this market, and others, the easiest and most workable way for mixed reality solutions to benefit consumers is allowing them to take a picture on their phone and manipulate the environment directly on the screen.

And with consumers' preference for mobile becoming ever more apparent it is clear that mixed reality will be a major part of the customer journey within the year.

We have recently released our own research into the future of technology in the UK's retail sector, specifically the future of mixed reality and the attitude of consumers towards the technology.

Our research revealed that UK retailers are set to benefit by as much as £1bn a year by offering the technology to enable consumers to virtually "try on" products before committing to purchases.

The report found that a third of consumers are regularly walking away from making a purchase, just because they can't visualise what products - like furniture, wallpaper or flooring - will look like when they get home.

But it also found that more than half of consumers would be likely to make a purchase if they were offered the chance to place a product in their own room before they had to part with their cash.

With nothing more than a picture on a phone or tablet, consumers using mixed reality are now able place products within their rooms to judge the colour, size and scale of any item they want.

Moreover, by implementing this solution directly into a retailer's existing online offering, rather than through an expensive app, it means the entire customer journey can be completed through mobile means - from research, to visualisation, to purchase.

As mobile shopping continues to become the norm for many consumers - £1.5bn was spent via mobile shopping in the past 12 months - retailers and brands need the tools in place to take full advantage of the changing landscape.

More than half of the UK consumers who took part in our research: "The Imagination Gap: Retail's £1bn problem" said they would be more likely to shop with brands that could offer them the most immersive shopping experience.

Mixed reality is perfectly placed to fit into the mobile shopping revolution, and it is something consumers clearly value.