Snap users are already well-versed in the company's AR expertise, thanks to Lenses and Filters. Now, the social media company is introducing AR Enterprise Services (ARES), which will provide these tools to businesses. As part of the launch, Snap is providing brands with a "Shopping Suite" to help them gain more customers.
According to the company, more than 250 million people use AR on the platform every day. Snapchat, by comparison, has 375 million daily active users. It claimed last year that users had tried shopping-related AR lenses more than 5 billion times since January 2021. The company did not provide an update.
AR Lenses are used by the company's partners to allow people to try on various clothing and accessories. Amazon and Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart are among them.
Snap's new Shopping Suite SaaS product includes four features: AR try-on to virtually try on new styles of clothing, footwear, and accessories (users can also upload an image of themselves to see how these items might look on them); 3D viewer to view a product from all angles; fit and sizing recommendation technology based on the users' body shapes; and enterprise manager to host and manage all digital assets, create AR experiences using Snap's SDK, and analyze performance. as well as assistance from the Snap team in customizing client solutions.
Companies can incorporate these features directly into their apps or websites, allowing customers to interact with them while browsing products.
The social media platform has been working towards this for some time. It acquired Fit Analytics, a startup that assisted customers in finding the correct size of apparel and footwear from online retailers, in 2021. The same year, it expanded its AR Lens creator studio with commerce-related features. Snap introduced tools for virtual try-on and converting images into 3D assets in April 2022. Snap's acquisitions of Forma and Vertebrae made this possible. Lens Cloud, a back-end service for lens developers, was also launched. All of this is now being packaged for enterprise customers by the company.
“Over the last decade, we’ve been hard at work bringing fun and personal AR experiences to Snapchatters. In the next decade, we’re excited to take our world-class AR technology to business websites and apps. We look forward to making the shopping experience more delightful for consumers and transforming businesses around the world with AR Enterprise Services,” Jill Popelka, head of AR Enterprise Services at Snap, said in a statement.
According to the company's results for Q4 2022, revenue was flat year on year, and it recorded a net loss compared to a profitable quarter in Q4 2021. With various monetization strategies, the company has been working to return to a cash flow-positive state. It launched the Snapchat+ subscription plan in June of last year, and it now has over 2 million paid users.
Snap is confident in its enterprise offerings. According to a survey, 92% of Gen Z users are comfortable using AR shopping features. According to a joint study conducted by Publics Media and Snap, the AR Retail market will be worth $1.2 trillion by 2030.
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