The US department store aims to improve sales of its Christmas trees this festive season by giving customers the tool they need to better evaluate a product’s suitability before making a purchase.
“Will it fit in your space? How tall is too tall? Should you get pre-lit or un-adorned?” the company wrote in an announcement on its website.
To answer these questions, and to improve consumer confidence while also reducing returns, Target has released new AR features in its mobile shopping app. Customers shopping for an artificial tree can look for the ‘AR icon’ in the app, or look for the words ‘See it in Your Space’ to use the new shopping feature.
According to the retailer’s announcement, the AR experience allows shoppers to use their phone’s camera (apparently it works best for iOS users) to virtually show the company’s life-size Christmas trees in any space.
In addition to its new feature for customers looking at purchasing an artificial Christmas tree, the retailer has also added six new holiday rooms to its virtual 360-degree shopping feature. Consumers will reportedly be able to see how dozens of the business’s most popular holiday products look (at-scale) in their living room, dining room or kitchen. The virtual room functionality will display a range of products, including light fixtures, couches and throw cushions, which are all fully shoppable from within the app.
Target isn’t the only company investing in new AR capabilities, with retailers both abroad and a little closer to home taking steps to improve their digital shopping experience in recent years.
Walmart, for instance, released a similar ‘virtual room’ shopping feature earlier in the year giving the business the ability to showcase its most popular products in a 3D apartment setting.
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