Complete DashboardGuide
Augmented reality in e-commerce: how it works in practice
Augmented reality in e-commerce is the feature that places the product, at real size, in the shopper’s surroundings through the phone camera. A photo shows what the piece looks like; augmented reality shows how it looks right there, in the shopper’s hand, on their table or in their living room.
What happens on the shopper’s side
On the product page, the shopper sees the piece in 3D and a button to view it in their space. When they tap it, the phone opens the camera, detects the floor or another surface and places the object at real scale. They can walk around it, move closer and compare it with what they have at home. There is no app to download: current phones, on iPhone and Android, do this from the browser.
A computer has no camera pointed at the room, so augmented reality is offered through a QR code. The shopper scans the code with their phone, and the piece opens directly in augmented reality mode.
Which products it makes a difference for
Augmented reality mainly settles questions of size and proportion. That is why it pays off in handbags, shoes, jewelry, watches, fragrance bottles, lamps, decor objects and furniture. For products where the question is how something drapes on the body or how a color looks on the skin, it helps less, and a face or body try-on tends to be the more suitable tool.
What you need to add it to your store
- 01
A 3D model of each product
This is the foundation. It can come from manual modeling, from a capture using many photos taken around the object, or from generation based on the product photo the store already has.
- 02
Correct scale
The model has to carry the real measurements of the piece. A mistake here shows immediately, and it is the kind of mistake shoppers do not forgive.
- 03
A viewer that works in the browser
It is what opens the model on the page, rotates the piece and launches augmented reality on the phone.
- 04
A place on the product page
Next to the photos, where the doubt arises. On platforms that do not accept an embedded viewer, a link or a QR code does the job.
How to tell whether it is working
Three numbers are enough to start: how many people opened the viewer, how many tapped to view it in their space and how many arrived through the QR code. Set against each product’s sales and returns, they show where augmented reality is making a difference. Complete Dashboard records all three for each piece.
How Complete does it
In the Dashboard, the brand uploads the product photo, Complete rebuilds the piece in 3D and delivers a viewer with augmented reality, ready to embed in the store with a snippet of code. The first piece is free and ready in minutes, which lets you test on a real product before rolling it out across the whole catalog. For campaigns and pieces that call for art direction, Complete Studio produces work to order.
Frequently asked questions
Do shoppers need to download an app?
No. Augmented reality opens in the phone’s browser, using the viewer the device already has built in.
Does it work on any phone?
It works on the large majority of devices in use, on iPhone and Android. On very old phones, the piece still appears in 3D on the page, just without the option to view it in your space.
Is augmented reality useful for clothing?
Less so. It shows an object in a space, while the question someone buying clothes has is how the garment fits. For clothing, body try-on is the closer category, with the limitations it still has.
See it with your own product
The first piece in Complete Dashboard is free and ready in minutes. For custom projects, talk to Complete.