Visual Commerce is no longer just a means of demarcating one’s business from competitors. It is now an important component to have, in making a rich online shopping experience.
It is all about the consumer’s behavior. The rise of social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok- we have seen how people engage with content these days. If you don’t have an immediate and engaging way for the shoppers to experience your products, you are losing sales.
Instead of solely relying on visiting stores, utilizing 3D content and augmented reality attracts, engages and influences the potential shoppers.
What is Visual Commerce?
Visual Commerce is the strategy of spiking compelling visual content and utilize augmented reality to enhance the customers’ shopping experience. It is an approach where brands use visual content and augmented reality for creating a dynamic experience.
Visual Commerce technology provides 360-degree views, eye catching lifestyle videos and AR furniture placement. It is basically about using visuals to narrate a story, letting customers genuinely connect with your products.
Visualization has been proven to be effective when used through these two methods-
Product Configurators
By means of visual configurators, products can be customized on the screen and their colors, materials and shape. This is done by employing intuitive product configurator.
For Example- In automotive industry, brands that sells cars online offer configurators which enable customers to customize the interior and exterior of the car by interchanging colors, and various components.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is the integration of the digital content with the user’s real time environment. It is an interactive experience being created to enhance the computer-generated perceptual information. By the means of augmented reality, it is possible to create virtual versions of designs and let clients interact with them in realistic ways.
Imagine the option of displaying the closet in the user’s intended room. With AR technology, the customer gets the idea of seeing variations, designs, check if it would fit in terms of size and whether the closet matches other furniture in the room visually.
The applications integrated with AR have the potential to scale the products- based on room dimensions with high accuracy. This advancement in technology redefines the experience of businesses in different industries.
Tools Used for Making a Visual Commerce Platform
Visual commerce technology allows users to experience the products in engaging and innovative ways from below mentioned tools:
- Visual Engine- Visual engine offers an extendable variety of visual experiences in 3D, virtual photography, or augmented reality (AR).
- Product Configurator- Product configurator is a built-in tool through which components and features of a product can be customized to meet the expectations as much as possible.
- Omnichannel Distribution– Omnichannel distribution is an approach to your product configurator everywhere to see and buy products from multiple channels. Most commonly preferred eCommerce market are referral websites, ads, engines, social media etc. By offering the flexibility, of shopping anywhere and possibility of getting deliveries almost everywhere, omnichannel distribution provides irresistible motivation for making repeat purchases with improved brand loyalty.
- Composable Platform- Composable commerce is an approach to structuring and managing digital commerce platforms that allows businesses to create customized solutions that meet their specific needs. It involves selecting and integrating technologies from different vendors, rather than relying on a single vendor’s one-size-fits-all solution.
In place of asking customers to “imagine if” … or giving them a set of options to choose from your product pages, visual commerce engages shoppers completely. It gives them a wholesome customer experience and helps in making them active participants in the designing process.
Benefits of Visual Commerce
1. Remarkable Visual Experience
Brands have always struggled to actually show every possible kind of product variation. To make the customer’s experience better, virtual photography is used wherein high-resolution product photos are delivered without having to hire a photographer. Also, 3D visual configurator allows customers to customize 360-degree view of the product showcasing its color, dimensions, materials etc.
2. Product Experience
Imagine if a buyer wants to add a hydraulic crane attachment to a heavy goods vehicle, the product configurator will recognize the need. Additionally, if the third-party outlet has certain limitations, then it would be factored into the 3D configurator.
3. Customization
Visual commerce lets you create a unique and memorable shopping experience that differentiates your brand. Customers are most likely to remember and shop from a brand that offers a visually stimulating and engaging shopping journey. Also, visual search allows people to find what they are looking for without needing the words to describe it.
4. Unique Brand Identity
Strong visual commerce helps in setting the brand apart, which makes it recognizable and unique. High resolution imagery, crisp visuals, content that reflects the brand, differentiates the brand by strengthening its impact. On top of this, client reviews elevate the brand’s credibility, allowing the hesitant buyers to see the products from a different perspective.
5. Boosts the Sales
The primary goal of eCommerce is to generate sales. As we know visuals have a lasting impact on the customers which encourages them to get their aspirations fulfilled with smooth shopping experience provided due to visual commerce platforms.
By creating shoppable posts, brands provide decent shopping exposure with minute descriptions followed by a streamlined shopping journey. This in turn helps the brand drive the conversion rate, increases sales, and boosts its growth in the online market.
Types of Visual Commerce
We know that visual content helps improve product discoverability. Visual Commerce is of different types, each offering unique ways for engaging with customers. Let’s explore different types of visual commerce:
1. Interactive Displays
Users may engage with interactive dynamic visual elements by clicking, swiping, scrolling. These may include virtual try on experiments, interactive lookbooks and product configurators.
2. 360-Degree View Display
This provides a thorough, panoramic view of a product from multiple perspectives. With 360-degree view, customers may rotate, enlarge, and study the products from various perspectives, making their purchasing experience more engaging and dynamic.
To retain the customers, brands must be customer-centric and 360-degree view allows to deliver the experiences that customers want.
3. Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR), the use of computer modeling and simulation which enables a person to interact with an artificial three-dimensional visual or other sensory environment. For example, training, retail, games, etc., are explored without borders and boundaries in 360 degrees. VR creates a virtual, simulated environment where people get to interact in simulated environments.
4. Augmented Reality
Through the use of virtual try on, augmented reality in visual commerce enables the buyers to see how a product would look and fit before making a purchase. For example- QR codes which are attached on the products enable the customers through AR experience to feel educated and informed about the product.
5. Video Content
This is an essential component of visual commerce as it has the potential to successfully present the products, highlight the features, and convey important information. Imagine getting the shopping experience of a high-end hair tool enhanced through product demonstrations with all the details, having testimonials from consumers would all enhance the buying exposure and foster trust among potential buyers.
Applications of Visual Commerce – How to use Visual Commerce for your brand
1. Augmented Reality
In real estate industry, augmented reality helps customers experience homes differently and saves time. We know that real estate dealings can be exhausting. Visual commerce can minimize the driving and walking to view multiple properties, stress to remember the details and other frustrations.
In this case, a realtor can lead a tour remotely and even know where the client is focusing, addressing the issues in real time. Exploring virtual reality and augmented reality bridges the gap between designer’s imagination and the real world.
2. Embracing QR Codes
If your business has not been using QR codes yet, it’s time to think about this! With devices being able to recognize directly in camera apps, they are quite easy to scan and are perfect for integrating physical products with digital content.
The QR code can be sticked on any physical product to extend its real-world existence into the digital world for showcasing the best offline/online experience.
3. Social Commerce
During these times when social media is used at its peak, we see that most social media platforms are full of product images, videos and live streams. Combining visual commerce with social media marketing offers a powerful way to engage customers by incorporating User-Generated Content (UGC) from social followers and influencers into eCommerce websites.
Thus, visual search technology makes sure that retailers can capitalize on this immense exposure to increase conversions. Shopping has become easier due to social commerce however; this relies on retailers being able to show the right product pages for each item.
4. Visual Search
Visual search has the ability to improve the accuracy of products displayed beneath posts and videos. This ensures buyers find what they are looking for and create a happy shopping experience.
We all have been through specific pain points as customers, wherein we have felt, “I know what I want, but I don’t know what it’s called.’’ Or “I don’t know what I want, but I will know it when I see it.” Visual search involves the use of image instead of text as the input for the search engine. This helps in creating the shopping experience for customers through visual product search.
5. Visual Storytelling
Visual storytelling is the process of communicating through visual media. Imagery, colors, compositions are all elements which combine in the art of visual storytelling. Different colors have distinct psychological effects on viewers, for example warm colors like red and orange bring about feelings of excitement and passion; thereby impacting the brand development.
For instance, a clothing brand could use a chain of photos showing a model preparing for a party; anticipating that the final frame might show his friend—who might, unexpectedly, turn out to be his old grandmother.
When the viewers realize that the model was getting ready with such care because he was excited to see his grandmother, they experience a sense of warmth and affection of this close interpersonal relationship.
In this way, without the viewer consciously grasping it—those positive feelings rub off on the brand that sponsored the message. The element of surprise increases the message’s memorability, at the same time. ensuring the message will stay with the viewer for as long as possible.
Conclusion
Shopping online can be daunting, in particular for expensive and high-end products. The goal of visual commerce is to disseminate a customer’s worries and help them make an educated and informed decision of purchase. So, if you want to push the limits of digital customizations and help your customers to take control of their shopping experiences, visual commerce is vital.
Visual commerce technology truly elevates the digital search experience by helping shoppers take control. Through the technology of product configurator, a customer who wants to customize his closet would design the size, material, and layout of a new piece directly on their computer, by sitting at their home and then order the customized product to their home.
Thus, visual product search improves the product discoverability, thereby making the shopping experience effortless.