What is augmented reality good for? Product visualization to encourage online shopping, reckons Santa Clara-based startup Apollo Box, which has now opened..
What is augmented reality good for? Product visualization to encourage online shopping, reckons Santa Clara-based startup Apollo Box , which launched an online marketplace for an eclectic selection of lifestyle products almost a year ago — before spicing up the ecommerce experience with an AR feature called ‘Teleport’.
It’s been testing AR on its marketplace since last October with a subset of products but is now opening up the technology to any brands selling via its platform.
The gift-focused marketplace has around 500,000 active users at this point, and an inventory of around 1,200 products from circa 450 vendors. Items range from jewelry and apparel, to ornaments and toys, to gadgets and more.
Since starting the augmented reality beta, the startup has sold 1,105 items involving the use of AR — or about 8.5% of all sales during the period, according to co-founder Will Li — and is crediting the tech with a 25% conversion rate boost.
Just 65 products are currently available on the marketplace for viewing in AR — about 5% of its total inventory — but Li is expecting this to step up substantially now they’re opening the tech to all their vendors. “We believe more brands will work with us after this public launch, and we hope to reach 25% of our growing inventory in the next six months,” he says.
To enable products to be viewable on Apollo’s marketplace in AR, vendors send product images or models and the startup converts these to 3D files. It can also create simple animations so that potential buyers can further interact with the virtual products.
The Teleport feature generally lets shoppers view and place a 3D representation on a surface in their home — such as a desk or table where they might be intending the product to sit.
