Survey: Customers are amenable to augmented reality

Augmented reality (AR) may be a leading-edge technology, but consumers appear comfortable in using it when they shop.

According to a recent survey from Ipsos and Google, “Everything Is Shoppable,” more than 90% of surveyed American consumers currently use or would consider using AR for shopping. Of those respondents who have used AR while shopping, 98% found it helpful.

Respondents indicate fairly high levels of expectation that they will encounter AR when mobile shopping in certain retail verticals. For example, 47% of respondents who use their smartphones to shop expect all automotive brands to use AR, and 43% of respondents who use their smartphones to shop expect all beauty brands to use AR.

Other interesting findings include:

• Almost half of respondents who use their smartphones to shop say brands and retailers that offer AR are more innovative.

• More than 90% of respondents currently use or would consider using visual search for shopping. More than half of these respondents say they would use visual search because of its convenience compared with other search methods.

“Using our cameras to help us with our day-to-day activities makes sense at a fundamental human level,” said Aparna Chennapragda, VP, Google Lens and AR. “We are visual beings – by some estimates, 30% of the neurons in the cortex of our brain are for vision.”