Amazon partners with AI-based visualization platform
Amazon is providing third-party sellers on its site access to a 3D visualization platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create “digital twins.”
Digital twins are interactive virtual models that serve as digital replicas of real-life objects and/or environments. Amazon is now collaborating with Hexa, which offers a proprietary immersive operating system.
[Read more: Lowe’s tests ‘digital twin’ of two physical stores]
The e-tail giant will make Hexa technology available to its third-party selling partners to enable them to create and display 3D images, immersive 360-degree viewing, virtual try-on capabilities, and augmented reality (AR) content on their Amazon product pages.
Amazon selling partners will now be able to upload their Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN) into Hexa’s content management system (CMS), and the system will automatically convert as little as one image into a high-fidelity 3D model with AR compatibility.
Working alongside the Amazon Web Services (AWS) spatial computing team and Amazon imaging teams, Hexa (an AWS partner) and Amazon have built a workflow designed to be usable by all Amazon third-party sellers, regardless of experience level with 3D or AR.
“Working with Amazon has opened up a whole new distribution channel for our partners,” said Gavin Goodvach, Hexa VP of partnerships. “Brands now have the ability to distribute 3D experiences and deliver high quantity immersive shopping to Amazon’s global network of customers using Hexa’s proprietary content delivery network (CDN).”
“In addition to 3D reconstruction, further enhancements to Hexa’s 3D tech stack also allows Amazon selling partners to render high-definition marketing materials, including packshots and lifestyle images directly from their 3D digital twins,” said Hexa’s CTO Jonathan Clark. “They’ll be able to do so by leveraging AWS Thinkbox render infrastructure and advanced capabilities.”
Amazon helps out third-party sellers
Amazon actively assists third-party retailers to sell on its e-commerce platform with at least 150 tools and services, and regularly adds new offerings. These include the recent introduction of a revamped version of its Account Health Rating, designed to help its 2 million third-party sellers adhere to Amazon’s policies and maintain positive account activities.
Some of the company’s other offerings for third-party sellers include a hosted distribution center solution called Amazon Warehousing & Distribution (AWD), which is designed to provide low-cost, long-term storage that gives sellers the option to store their inventory in Amazon distribution centers and then seamlessly replenish to Amazon fulfillment centers. The e-tail giant is supporting the service with new, purpose-built facilities for bulk storage and automated distribution.