Shopping with Digital Twins: The Potential of Avatar Based Retail
To tackle the challenges of high return rates and declining store visits, NeXR Technologies combines online and offline shopping to innovate customer experiences with avatar based retail! From personalised product recommendations, virtual try-ons, and more – these are just a few of the possibilities of avatar based commerce.
Life-like Avatars revolutionise retail
Avatar based retail is a new and innovative way of shopping that is made possible by body scanning technologies. Shoppers are able to create a life-like avatar of themselves that can be used to shop online and in store. This avatar can be used to try on clothes, test out makeup, and even experience how products may move. Shoppers are able to save time and money by using their digital twin as they no longer have to physically go to a store or wait in long queues to try out products. Since the shopper's avatar represents them, retailers can be sure to get accurate feedback about products from real customers and reduce their return rate drastically.
How it works: Shop with your digital twin!
If you've ever gone shopping for clothes, you know the drill: find an outfit you like, go into the fitting room, and try it on. But what if there was a way to try on clothes without even leaving your house or queuing for the changing room?
Here's how NeXR’s Technology works: Customers create an avatar of themselves using the in-store 3D body scanner that produces a photorealistic digital twin with the shopper’s exact measurements. This avatar is then uploaded to the AvatarCloud App, a mobile solution where the shopper can try out clothing in a virtual fitting room, see how the fashion moves, obtain sizing recommendations, and a detailed overview of their own body measurements. Through the use of in-store QR-codes on products, customers can simply scan a piece to virtually try it on their avatars, avoiding long queuing and finding the perfect fit. Additionally, they can use the online feature to virtually try out and shop for clothes wherever they are.
Through virtual fitting and consumer preference based recommendations (including size, fit and style), returns can be reduced by 72%, and retailers obtain valuable product feedback as well as customer data to improve the sizing of their own designs.
NeXR’s 3D body scanning technologies greatly elevate the shopping experience for both shoppers and retailers alike. Thanks to drastic improvements in the mobility of the technologies, body scanners can be integrated seamlessly into stores, just like changing rooms. Thus, customers can create their own digital twin within minutes providing them with a new and unique in-store experience.
Avatars in action: The H&M case
Returns are one of the biggest cost drivers for many companies in the textile industry. In addition, fashion brands with a large network of brick-and-mortar stores are struggling with declining visitor numbers, partly due to customer shift to e-commerce and disadvantages in terms of product variety compared to online stores.
Tackling such issues, NeXR Technologies partnered with H&M to test the potential of avatar based retail. After deploying NeXR's self-developed body scanner in two major stores in Berlin, almost 60% of the surveyed shoppers found the offered virtual fitting solution helpful in finding out the right size of clothes. In addition, 92% of users confirmed that the service helped them find out whether they liked the clothes they had chosen. The body scanners in the local stores were also a good way of creating new incentives for visits and thus countering the declining visitor frequencies in the industry as a whole.
Get in touch with us: If you have any questions about avatar based retail or want to know how to implement it in your business model, please feel free to contact our expert Thomas Richter.
Link: https://www.nexr-technologies.com/ Email: t.richter.ext@nexr.io
