Apple
Try and buy instantly in Augmented Reality with Apple Pay in AR Quick Look.
Apple is changing the way you shop online with Augmented Reality (AR). Using the power of AR you can see what a product looks like in your home, office, or on your body, AND buy it immediately.
Geoff Stahl on stage at WWDC 2019
At the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year in San Jose, California, Apple revealed its latest set of developer tools for creating AR experiences on iOS devices: ARKit 3, Reality Composer, and RealityKit. ARKit for iOS and iPadOS are the world’s largest Augmented Reality platform with hundreds of millions of enabled devices.
Geoff Stahl, Senior Director of Software, Technology Development Group at Apple, took the stage at the WWDC 2019 Platforms State of the Union to share the latest advancements in AR.
Stahl opened his presentation stating, “ARKit helps you visualize things that are difficult, expensive, or impossible to do otherwise.” He shared examples of applications across entertainment, education, enterprise, and commerce.
“Commerce is a particularly impressive use case with Home Depot, Target, and Wayfair all having tens of thousands of products available to preview in AR. ARKit plus the usdz file format and Quick Look together make the world’s first mass market Augmented Reality commerce solution.”
Wayfair
Apple’s usdz file format is optimized for sharing in apps like Messages, Safari, Mail, Files, and News. Using usdz, Quick Look for AR also allows you to place 3D objects into the real world to preview how a product or object looks in your surroundings.
E-commerce company Wayfair had more than a 3 fold increase in purchasing when customers viewed their products in Augmented Reality.
“We’d like to continue this momentum by announcing that Apple Pay will be integrated directly with AR Quick Look this Fall. This makes it easier for consumers to try on and buy items like these glasses directly from Augmented Reality.”
In addition to the large retailers Stahl named, the integration of Apple Pay in AR Quick Look has big benefits for small businesses.
Canadian company Shopify has been working hard to make the incredible business potential unlocked by AR more accessible for small businesses. They’ve built a services marketplace to help their merchants create 3D models of their products and with AR Quick Look enable those 3D models to be viewable directly through the Safari browser.
Shopify might just be one of Apple's largest consumers of AR Quick Look. In fact, 5 out of the 6 ”examples on the web" included in Apple's AR Quick Look gallery are Shopify stores.
Daniel Beauchamp is the head of Virtual and Augmented Reality at Shopify. “Shopify AR is a big focus for us,” he told me. “We're looking forward to working with the new AR Quick Look updates and can't wait to see how Reality Composer and Apple Pay integration will make online shopping even more realistic and seamless."
With usdz files being easily shareable, shoppers can get a second opinion before purchasing by embedding the virtual product in chat or email conversations (perhaps even inspiring a direct purchase by that friend or family member!). I also wonder if Apple will extend The Affiliate Program to Apple Pay Integration with AR Quick Look to help you earn commissions on virtual try-on purchases in Augmented Reality.
Jon Wade, AR/VR Product Manager at Shopify, also commented, “Something yet to be fully leveraged about usdz in iOS is the way it can be passed around through email, messages, and communications channels. Excited for opportunities for this kind of sharing to always have a path back to the merchant.”
Stay tuned to Shopify’s Unite conference on June 18-19 in Toronto for more updates.
UPDATE: November 22, 2019
Details on adding an Apple Pay Button or a Custom Action in AR Quick Look now here (via David Lui, Software Engineer at Apple).
