As the eyewear industry grapples with meeting the ever-growing demand for vision correction, sun protection, and fashion statements, brands and retailers must adopt digital transformation to optimize operations and boost customer satisfaction.
For example, eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica is meeting rising eye care needs through cutting-edge automation, which enhances production and manufacturing processes and maintains sustainability standards in its largest manufacturing facility and integrated distribution center in the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile, its Tijuana plant in Mexico is set to increase the annual production of ophthalmic lenses by 10 million and reach the goal of 25 million frames through advanced automation and intelligent manufacturing systems.
However, beyond automation for production, manufacturing, and distribution, another technological innovation the eyewear industry is leveraging for digital transformation is augmented reality (AR). Defined as the integration of digital elements into a user’s physical environment, AR has various applications in eyewear sales, marketing, and customer experience, as outlined below.
Virtual mirrors for online retail
One of AR’s primary applications is bridging the gap between physical and online retail by combining sensory stimuli in the real world with computer-generated digital content. As more consumers shop for eyewear online for accessibility and convenience, optical retailers are launching AR-based features to help consumers purchase frames even if they cannot see the product physically and inspect its size, fit, and overall quality.
The leading US retailer Glasses.com has a Virtual Mirror that enables shoppers to try on its selection of glasses frames from top eyewear brands like Michael Kors, Burberry, and Armani Exchange. Whether consumers choose the aviator-inspired MK3019 Procida frames or the oversized cat-eye BE2374 glasses, they can use their device’s camera to access a live preview of how the eyewear looks on their face and even save their favorite styles on the product page. In addition to this realistic virtual try-on, the retailer lets customers add their prescriptions before checkout, contributing to more informed purchases and better customer satisfaction.
AR-assisted product recommendations
AR features can already be incorporated into customers’ product discovery and selection process, thus streamlining the shopping journey before they decide which products to try. This use case mainly works by combining AR technology with other advanced tools like 3D mapping and facial recognition to scan a customer’s face and recommend products based on their face shape, size, and overall features.
A notable example of an eyewear brand deploying this feature is Costa del Mar. With a quick face scan, its Frame Advisor technology offers a personalized selection of frame styles that match customers’ features. The tool can be used in conjunction with the website’s product comparator, ultimately allowing buyers to compare eyewear differences and find the right frame and lens details for their vision, outdoor, and styling needs.
AR glasses for smart features
Given AR’s use cases across industries like business, finance, marketing, and more, companies are also integrating AR capabilities into eyewear to create smart glasses with features beyond traditional vision correction and protection. For example, tech giant Meta is releasing its first AR glasses, named Orion, to run holographic elements spliced into the real world. Through this tech-enabled eyewear, users can play games like chess or ping-pong with the digital graphics overlaid into their physical environment for a hands-free immersive experience.
Incorporating digital imagery into the user’s real world via the eyewear’s natural, weightless display can also make browsing social media and the broader Internet more efficient and accessible. Before the release of Meta’s Orion prototype, Snap’s fifth-generation Spectacles came with an OpenAI-powered chatbot, My AI, to allow users to generate AR animations, such as Bitmojis, for social media engagement and content creation. In essence, AR capabilities expand the purpose of traditional eyewear and, by extension, enable companies to capture a larger market of glasses wearers.
AR filters for omnichannel campaigns
Lastly, the interactive elements brought about by AR can benefit eyewear brands’ product promotions and overall brand experience. For example, the eyewear and head protection group Bollé Brands developed AR-centric campaigns to reach its target market of adventurous consumers and promote its latest sports eyewear and helmet set. The campaigns mainly focused on the launch of an AR filter for its newest Phantom model, which are sunglasses designed for winter sports.
Bollé partnered with athletes and influencers to test the AR filter on their Instagram Stories, before providing customers with the same experience of seeing how the world appears through the lens of the latest Bollé eyewear. This organic and immersive AR experience generated nearly 2.5 million impressions and helped increase the company’s year-over-year sales by 456% from 2020 to 2021. Additionally, the official Bollé website featured interactive AR models of the said frames, allowing customers to view the product in 3D and learn about its key features through bulleted information displayed around the model.
Clearly, AR can be integrated into different aspects of the eyewear industry with the overall goal of creating streamlined and engaging customer experiences, starting with the product discovery and selection process until the brand and end-user experiences. Since AR technologies can be costly, businesses must first evaluate common customer pain points and decide which aspect of their operations can be improved and optimized by AR tools.
Aside from AR, artificial intelligence (AI) is another emerging technology optimizing industries like eyewear, which are increasingly capitalizing on e-commerce for increased sales and customer reach. AI can be incorporated into chatbots to provide automated responses and 24/7 customer support, while also reducing wait times by handling multiple customers at once. Read the previously linked article to learn more about how AI chatbots can be deployed in customer service without posing a threat to human agents who handle complex customer queries and concerns.
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