Social media platform Snapchat has made no secret of its belief in augmented reality (AR), which it claims represents “a profound technological paradigm shift that is going to significantly impact businesses across nearly every industry”.
With this in mind, it has just launched a new b2b solution, AR Enterprise Services (ARES), which it calls “a new way for businesses to integrate Snap’s AR technology suite into their own apps, websites, and physical locations – transforming the way they engage with consumers and driving better business results.”
Snapchat’s first offering under the ARES umbrella is Shopping Suite, which provides features such as 3D Viewer, AR Try-On and Fit Finder. According to the platform, the Shopping Suite’s AR asset creation services “help businesses create digital versions of their apparel, footwear, and eyewear products using proprietary photogrammetry hardware and machine learning creation pipelines.” Businesses can also manage and optimise AR assets & integrations and measure performance analytics.
Although ARES has just been launched, Snapchat says around 300 businesses are already using Shopping Suite features. These include sunglasses retailer Goodr, which leveraged AR Try-On and interactive 3D Viewer tech to replicate the experience of in-store shopping on customers’ mobile devices. It saw an 81% uplift in add-to-cart and 67% uplift in conversion, leading to a 59% increase in revenue per visitor.
Snapchat says its AR tools are used by 250 million people around the world daily. Through this usage, it claims to have seen the evolution of AR from just entertainment and self-expression, to “true utility for both consumers and businesses”.
The new venture is led by Jill Popelka, who joined Snap last year as head of AR Enterprise Services and is building a global team that spans strategy, customer experience, sales, product, product marketing, customer support, and ecosystem development. Popelka previously worked at SAP and Accenture.
