Warby Parker improves frame fit with AR
A specialty eyewear retailer is leveraging augmented reality (AR) to offer new frame sizes.
Responding to complaints by some customers that none of its standard frame sizes fit them properly, Warby Parker used the Apple ARKit AR development platform and iPhone X TrueDepth camera to develop custom software that analyzes fit and tested it with volunteers across various demographics. The retailer’s data scientists then used the findings to factor in a broader range of face sizes in frame design and assortment.
Discovering that offering its most popular styles in a standard medium width did not work with a large percentage of consumers, Warby Parker devised a new frame sizing strategy. The retailer spent two years developing a series of extended sizes (extra narrow, narrow, medium, wide, and extra wide) and applied them to its bestselling frames.
Traditonally, eyewear customers have shopped for glasses by looking at shape or style first, and then tried on the frame for fit. Warby Parker’s new range of sizes helps enables customers to shop frames tailored to their face. The company is now offering a total of 27 styles, ranging from extra narrow to extra wide, in seven of its best-selling frames.
Warby Parker has also applied AR technology to help ensure proper eyewear fit on the front end of its operations. Earlier in 2019, the retailer a new feature called “Virtual Try-On” available in the Warby Parker mobile app on iPhone X, XR, and XS devices. Inside the app, customers can put their smartphone camera into selfie mode to get a digital view of themselves. Shoppers can then select frames and use AR graphics to place them on the image of their face to see how they look.
Customers have the option to select frames for delivery for home try-on, save them to look at again later, or purchase in the app. Virtual Try-On uses Apple Face ID technology and a proprietary algorithm to create AR images of frames that mimic the customer’s unique 3D facial curvature, as well as the frame’s texture, color, size and fit.