Snap offers its AR tools to enterprise customers

Snap users are already familiar with the company’s expertise in augmented reality through lenses and filters. Now, the social media company is unveiling AR Enterprise Services (ARES) to bring these tools to businesses. As part of the launch, Snap is offering a “Shopping Suite” for brands that can help them attract more customers.

The company said more than 250 million people interact with AR on the platform every day. By comparison, Snapchat has 375 million daily active users. Last year, he claimed that since January 2021, users had tried shopping-related AR lenses more than 5 billion times. The company did not provide an updated figure.

The company’s partners are using AR lenses to let people try on different clothes and accessories. These include Amazon and Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart, owned by Amazon and Walmart.

Snap’s new SaaS Shopping Suite product offers four features: AR Trial to virtually try on new styles of clothing, shoes and accessories. Users can also upload an image of themselves and see what these items might look like on them; 3D viewer to watch a product from all angles; fit and size recommendation technology based on users’ morphology; business manager to host and manage all digital assets, build AR experiences using Snap’s SDK, and review performance analytics; and help from the Snap team to customize customer solutions.

Businesses can embed these features directly into their apps or websites, so customers can interact with them while checking out products.

Picture credits: Snap

The social media platform has been preparing for this for quite some time. In 2021, it acquired Fit Analytics, a start-up that helped customers find the right size for clothes and shoes from online retailers. The same year, he added commerce-related features to his AR Lens creative studio. In April 2022, Snap introduced tools for virtual try-on and converting images to 3D assets. These were made possible by Snap’s acquisitions of Forma and Vertebrae. It also launched the Lens Cloud back-end service for lens developers. Today, the company combines all of this in a package aimed at enterprise customers.

“Over the past decade, we’ve worked hard to bring fun and personal augmented reality experiences to Snapchatters. Over the next decade, we’re excited to bring our world-class AR technology to websites and apps. We look forward to making the shopping experience more enjoyable for consumers and transforming businesses around the world with AR Enterprise Services,” said Jill Popelka, head of AR Enterprise Services at Snap, in a statement.

Picture credits: Snap

Snap has already tested the SaaS offer with some customers. These include sunglasses seller Goodr, clothing company Princess Polly and Mongolian manufacturer Gobi Cashmere. Snap claimed these retailers experienced higher conversion rates, better product engagement, and lower return rates.

The company’s results for the fourth quarter of 2022 showed revenue flat year-over-year and a net loss from a profitable quarter in the fourth quarter of 2021. The company took measures to return to a positive cash flow state with a different monetization. strategies. Last June, it launched the Snapchat+ subscription plan, which now has over 2 million paying users.

Snap is aggressive on its enterprise offerings. The company cited a survey indicating that 92% of Gen Z users are comfortable with AR shopping features. A combined study by Publics media and Snap suggests that the AR Retail market will have a project value of $1.2 trillion by 2030.