Industry News
It is no mystery that buying stuff online is one of the most commons things to do nowadays. If you disagree with this statement then the chances you were born before 1970 are really high. In fact, 67% of people born after 1980 prefer to do their shopping online.
The market has shown how this trend is true. The online purchase of products has been growing at a 15% a year ratio and is expected to keep doing so for the next years. As shown in Nasdaq, it is estimated that 95% of purchases will be made online by 2040.
Buying a phone online, buying books, or buying products for the home online can be easy.
But when it comes to ski gear things might get a bit more complicated, especially when it is outerwear what you are talking about. Many people know exactly what they want, they have studied it, but there is also a lot of people who don’t have a clue what they are buying or how it is going to look like when on.
Mountain Hardwear identified three main barriers to making informed purchasing decisions: limited time to visit retail stores, product availability in-store, and guesswork of online product images.
That’s why they created an augmented reality (AR) app that allows snowsports enthusiasts to build their ski kit from their homes, work, the train, or wherever. The app allows you to literally mix different jackets, pants, bibs, change colors and styles, simulating what would be an in-store experience, but from the comfort of your home.
“AR offers an exciting opportunity, allowing people to virtually explore a product as a part of their shopping experience,” says Snow Burns, Mountain Hardwear Vice President of Marketing.
The app has been developed in partnership with Transparent House, a tech-forward creative agency based in San Francisco, California. The program allows, amongst other features, zooming into the clothes fabric textures, rotate them and change the color in real-time, which is something very hard to deal with when shopping just with a limited amount of pictures of a product.
Related: Quality Adventure Stoke from Mountain Hardwear & MSP | “The Brilliant Moment”
To download the app (iPhone) or check out Mountain Hardwear’s in-browser AR shopping experience, click here.
With all due respect to your journalism, this was launched last spring.