How to increase engagement and improve core content with AR?

In an environment that is more competitive than ever, how was LG able to increase engagement by 26% on average and make the most out of new technologies like rich media?

Back in 2019, ecommerce was already taking a huge share of total retail sales, taking up to 13,8% of transactions worth $3,3 billion dollars, according to Statista. Marketplaces and online retailers were flourishing, and brands were ramping up investments on their own channels. LG was one of those brands — even though it is an established name, it was getting harder and harder to get attention from customers in platforms such as marketplaces, where hundreds of brands try to push their SKUs as much as they can.

The Challenge

The key task for LG was to increase conversion rates and user engagement, while improving their core content, product cards and overall shopping experience in marketplaces. Why? Because often users and brands find it challenging to interact with product cards in marketplaces — they’re not clear, lack information, they are not intuitive and are also hard to tell apart from other brands’ product descriptions.

To make this happen, LG realized that they needed to create core content that would be just as informative as it was unique and innovative. Rich media, in other words.

That’s how they understood that 24STREAM, an enhanced content streaming software was the tool they needed. The idea was to introduce 24STREAM’s augmented reality solution, 24AR, into LG’s website to give customers a clear idea of what the product would look like in their own apartments so they would make purchases more confidently.

How was it done?

After a successful pilot launch of 24AR, an augmented reality software powered by 24STREAM, LG made the decision to implement it. Together with 24TTL, the consumer electronics brand selected its 10 most popular products — three from the categories “refrigerators”, “washers”, “TVs”, and one from “smart speakers”.

After a week, 24TTL’s design team created detailed 3D models of each product in different colors.

The final result? Down below:

In addition to this, a full integration with LG’s website made it possible for users to load these AR models around 2 to 4 times faster. This also allowed the brand to customize the widget and make improvements or changes more promptly, without involving third parties.

“That’s because 24STREAM has its own integrated content syndication system. This means that files are stored on CDN-servers, not on the client’s website, which significantly reduces the loading time. And because the 24STREAM system itself is already connected to several retailers, it is possible to insert AR into core content in a few clicks.”

Vitaly Klimov, CTO of 24TTL

How does AR work?

LG was one of the first companies to try this 24AR, formerly 24STREAM’s MVP. Today, no matter the browser, the operating system or the device — AR is always available.

For shoppers to enable augmented reality on their devices, they have to click the AR icon inside the product card to gain access to the functions “augmented reality” and “interior fitting simulation”.

On smartphones, the transition to AR is instant: after tapping the icon, the product “appears” inside the user’s room simply by scanning the surface.

On desktops, the 3D-viewer opens first, and it allows the user to have a look of the product from all sides. A “look in real life” button can also be found: just like the “interior fitting simulation”, it gives the user the chance to see what the product would look like inside certain spaces by scanning a QR-code that appears after clicking the button.

When exiting the simulation on a smartphone, users will be automatically redirected to the product’s card. This is done to boost engagement and to make the decision-making process faster and easier, since the interaction with the product is never interrupted

The results

All of this brought an increase of 18% on LG’s website desktop version and a 35% in the mobile version, according to Google Analytics and LG’s data, proving how important clear, detailed and innovative core content can be.

People certainly preferred mobile devices to shop

Some key features of the solution

Apart from what we have mentioned above, 24STREAM brings some major improvements when compared to other tools:

Load time.

It takes no longer than 1–2 seconds to load product pages and their different features thanks to the use of a content delivery network (СDN).

Cross-browser

AR works across all browsers on iOS, Android (supporting arkit and arcore respectively) and desktop devices.

Customization

The icon design inside the product pages is completely customizable.

Conclusion

As we said earlier, to retain customers, promote a product and increase sales can be hard in crowded platforms like marketplaces. Because of this, brands and retailers have to innovate and think out of the box, trying new solutions and technologies, rich media being one of them. Apart from creating a unique experience for users, enhanced content is an incredibly helpful tool — it helps customers understand if the products they’re browsing fit their needs by providing information and perspectives of the product otherwise unavailable. And, if done correctly, as in LG’s case, it can bring notorious changes and improvements in sales and engagement.

To improve your shopping experience and increase conversion rates with rich media and augmented reality, contact us!