A brand new Pinterest feature that allows consumers to visualize how furniture or other furniture items would appear in their home using augmented reality (AR). Similar technology has been adopted by big retailers, such as Amazon, IKEA, and Wayfair, and others, and others in the design and home space, like Houzz.
Previously, if the customer is pleased with the item they are viewing and is satisfied, they can buy the product directly through the retailer.
This shopping experience that is virtual for home decor has just launched within the U.S. across more than 80K shoppable Pins. This is the largest Pinterest AR shopping experience to this point.
Pinterest first launched its “Try On” feature on January 20, 2021, for makeup products including lipstick and eyeshadow. Amazon also offers a “View within your home” feature on its mobile app for specific items as well.
How it operates. Searches of Home decor items by users through Pinterest’s Android or iOS apps will see three dots at the upper right corner of “Try On ” Pins. Click on the pin and click “Try at home in the space you have” to see the item with cameras.
It’s the 3rd “Try It On” feature Pinterest has released in the last two years. Pinterest did not yet work on placing products directly into the room, which means — only on people’s faces.
Although it’s not the same tech as the previous, however, all of the Try On experiences have the similar goal of turning in the form of inspiration into a purchase.
To access the feature iOS or Android users from the U.S. can click supported home decor pins, after which they can select “Try within your space” to view the product’s virtual appearance through the camera’s lens.
The user can alter the item in their personal space, and then browse through the product details, including prices. To purchase, you just click the Pin again and they will be directed to the checkout page of the website of the retailer.
This effort to guide users’ casual browsing into shopping transactions is the primary goal of Pinterest over time.
However, the company was slow to adjust to shifts in the marketplace, like the shift away from static images and towards video to inspire shoppers as an example, up until recently, at least.
The company stumbled into this market through the debut of its first Video-first service, Idea Pins, and has since invested in tools for creators which allow online influencers to earn profits through their content.
Pinterest is also not the first company to launch its latest AR feature that allows furniture and accessories for shopping.
However, it is true that the AR retail market for shopping is far from being fully developed. In the beginning, adoption is limited by the tools accessible to AR developers, including Apple’s ARKit which has slowly evolved over time to make the user experience more user-friendly and less clunky.
The app developers are still working out ways to create AR shopping attractive to shoppers. In the last week, for example, Snapchat updated its AR capabilities, which currently include the ability to shop Lens which lets users look through a variety of products in one location, and with live price.
While the first attempts at AR shopping have seemed more than a little gimmicky There are indications that AR could help retailers improve conversions if done properly. There could be some consumers demand for this kind of experience.
For instance, a Google survey from the year 2019 revealed a consumers interested in AR as 66% of respondents said they’d like to make use of AR to help them shop. However, actual research and statistics on conversions are less extensive.
However, the e-commerce platform Shopify revealed that sellers who were incorporating 3D content into their sites had seen an increase of 94% in conversion on average, according to its internal data.
Certain merchants that utilized 3D designs in AR were able to boost conversion rates by as much as 250%, Shopify said. The company also mentioned Vertebrae’s research for 2020 which showed that conversion rates are up by 90 percent when customers engage with AR as opposed to those who do not.
Pinterest however, in a separate announcement, said that its customers are 5 times more likely to buy through a “Try On”-enabled Pin than a normal Pin. It also stated that home decor was the most popular category of its site, which will see 3.37 billion search clicks by 2021.
This makes this new AR initiative one that could have an audience that could be larger than its AR beauty-related features. The company highlighted the visual search function with usage increasing by 126% over the course of a year but did not provide hard figures on the number of searches.
“Since the outbreak began this year, we’re witnessing more digitally sophisticated shoppers than ever before and millions of users are now looking for mobile and virtual alternatives to test before buying, get personal recommendations and collect information to aid in their decision-making process” explained Jeremy King, SVP of Engineering at Pinterest in a press release.
“These behavior patterns are taking place across Pinterest each day which is the reason we’re constantly working to improve technology like AR Try On and make Pinterest an entire shopping platform that can take people from inspiration to making purchases any time within this app.”
Its AR purchasing feature was U.S.-only for iOS and Android initially however, it will eventually roll out to international markets, Pinterest said.
