Augmented reality Snapchat shopping is now coming into vogue in a major way, according to the company’s latest announcements at Thursday’s Snap Partner Summit.
Among the many updates, Snap’s new retail-oriented features showed how its fashion ambitions are evolving. The company has unveiled more sophisticated virtual fashion rehearsals while reducing the technical bar so that any brand can embark on AR shopping. To enhance the discovery, the platform has also created a new dress up destination, so that users have one place to check out new looks and products or get inspiration. It also seems to offer its perception of metaverse fashion, turning Bitmojis into a virtual style platform.
Thanks to Forma’s image processing technology, the developer has introduced a feature that can turn 2D catalog images into 3D AR assets, along with AR shopping templates for easier web-based lens creation. In essence, this means that brands can move from a product image to Snapchat AR Lens with much less fuss. There’s even a new 3D asset manager to argue with all this content.
The platform was already able to try out fashion for some items, but is now pushing the scenario from entertainment to conversion territory. Snap’s research and development team is not only working to make the visualization more complex and realistic, but the company’s acquisition of Fit Analytics in April 2021 is also bearing fruit in this harvest of versions, introducing size forecasting technology. on the table.
By taking full-body selfies, shoppers can try virtual outfits and may have reasonable expectations that they may actually look that way.
Features are also not limited to the Snapchat app. They come together in the Camera Kit, Snap’s software development tools that allow third-party developers to transfer Snapchat lenses to other applications and websites. The kit itself has been developed to make it even more convenient for retail.
“What we launched this year are specific improvements to the previous camera kit, which was specifically tailored for retail use,” Carolina Argueles, head of global product strategy for AR for Snap, told WWD. “We took our original camera SDK, which says that every feature we have in Lens Studio, all the AR creation tools in this compilation can be used with the Camera Kit… we took this infrastructure and layered an extra set of integrations on top,” which integrate directly into [brands’] commercial rear end. ”
The result, she explained, is that the actual integration between Snap and the brand application or the distribution of content on their product detail pages is more seamless. “This is a specific enhancement to Camera Kit’s Software Development Kit (SDK) and is really only for retailers.”
Snap has revealed that Puma is the brand’s first global partner to use the new camera kit, allowing shoppers to try out Puma’s digital sneakers.
The reports are part of a “dual approach to trying to try on clothing”, Argueles added. As revealed last year, Snap also works with fabric and body mesh simulation or body tracking technology, so it can portray digital textiles and their physics more realistically than how the body moves.
“When you think about trying on clothes, even last year, it was the biggest opportunity because it’s the biggest category of trade,” she continued. “But this is also the one who suffers from the highest rate of return. This is the one that was difficult – the hardest to try – creating assets is very difficult if you create a 3D asset for clothing, up to the image and you are not realistic.
Since last year, the company has been investing in a variety of technologies to stimulate clothing samples in two ways: and improve your body tracking capabilities.
The other is to abandon the need for retailers to be fully involved in 3D modeling, as the new image processing feature uses standard product photography.
For shoppers, Snap has created a dressing hub that “brings together the best of AR fashion and the experience of designers, retailers and fashion brands in one place,” a Snap spokesman said.
Dress Up is the first special area specifically created for fashion experiences and Snapchat shopping. This could help separate the category from the fire hose to other AR content and shopping on the platform. More than 250 million users have used AR lenses to shop more than 5 billion times, according to the company, which added that AR lenses convert far more consumers than standard advertising.
But Snap’s fashion boost goes beyond shopping for real-world products and its avatars.
Six years ago, when the company acquired Bitmoji’s avatar company, the fashion industry had not yet heard of the metaverse or traded in virtual fashion or NFT. Now that it has created more than 1 billion Bitmojis, the company is upgrading the avatars and turning them into a fashion platform. The update introduces 3D designs and multiple poses, gestures and backgrounds – more than 1,200 of them – in full body mode. The graphics go from animated to boast higher quality at the Pixar level.
As a fashion platform, partners will be able to release limited edition fashion items for Bitmoji as exclusive to Snapchatters.
This move seems like a variation of Snap on the virtual fashion movement spreading in the industry, and when asked if Bitmojis could one day delve into NFT, Arguelles became restrained.
“There’s nothing to share right now,” she said. “It’s not this particular launch. But I think we’re really excited about the future of digital space in general. There are obviously a lot of NFT calls going on in the world right now, and we have some of the leading platforms that people have been talking about – like DressX and Rtfkt are actually longtime users of Lens Studio. ”
Other reports have focused on the Snap maker community and other features, including a “private component system” for Minis or small extras that third-party developers like Poshmark can add as features. The system allows brands to add more social experiences, such as ratings, reviews and recommendations, but designed in a way that protects consumer privacy.
But for Arguelles, shopping announcements feel like a full-blown moment that underscores the company’s vision from day one, which should be a camera company.
As if to emphasize this, Snap has released another revelation: a new pocket-sized flying camera called the Pixy, which apparently aims to take selfies to new heights.
“I think our first approach to the camera from day one really sets us up for the future we’ve always had in mind,” Argueles added. “I think people are finally realizing that when we say ‘we’re a camera company,’ it makes sense for everyone.”
“But for us, it was the vision we’ve always built on.”
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