How QVC Helps Customers Make Smarter Purchase Decisions with Augmented Reality

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In an effort to test new products for mobile and home shoppers, QVC Inc. recently teamed up with PerfectCorp to offer customers the first broadcast television augmented reality beauty purchase.

QVC collaborated with YouCam Makeup to launch real-time virtual try-ons for a special selection of Laura Geller New York products that QVC featured on Today’s Special Value.

“Cosmetics are a very personal purchase – every customer has different styles, skin tones and preferences, so it’s a category that lends itself to sampling,” said Alex Miller, Senior Vice President of Digital Commerce at QVC.  “Anything that enhances the customer’s ability to understand how a beauty item will work for her and how she can use it to achieve her goals is important.”

Miller said QVC sees augmented reality as an emerging technology that has promise to help customers make smart buying decisions.

“Our customers tell us that demonstrations are immensely important, so we are going to continue to pay attention to and invest in how we bring demonstrability to life across platforms,” said Miller.

Miller said augmented reality is still evolving with regard to technology and consumer adoption, which is something to watch in terms of how it may impact various shopping categories.  Augmented reality opens several exciting possibilities for consumers to bring their potential purchase to life before making the commitment.

“At QVC, our goal is to provide an experience that helps our customers love the purchase,” said Miller. “Part of that is giving consumers accurate information to make an educated purchasing decision, and we believe augmented reality has potential to enhance that experience.”

Miller said one of QVC’s “superpowers” is storytelling through social, mobile, and video – they wanted to leverage that strength in bringing new technologies to life.

“QVC has been a leader in developing multiscreen experiences,” said Miller.  “Teaming up with YouCam for virtual trials is one example of how we look for ways to elevate and further integrate our multiplatform experience.”

Miller said augmented reality is as close to a personalized experience as you can get without stopping by the makeup counter for a personal demonstration.

“Our customers are able to actually see how each product looks on themselves before they go ahead and make a decision to purchase,” said Miller.  “Augmented reality has the potential to reduce the uncertainty around new products, shades, etc. For new and products, artificial reality may present an opportunity to accelerate adoption by allowing the customer to virtually try-before-she-buys.”

Miller added, augmented reality helps mitigates that concern by affording a virtual representation of what a product could look like on them specifically.

As far as the future goes with QVC implementing augmented reality into other shopping categories, Miller said they are watching eagerly how fans continue to react to being able to virtually test the Laura Geller Today Special using the YouCam augmented reality capability.

“We’ll be looking closely not only at customer engagement in terms of sales, but also direct feedback from our fans on social pages, through customer service and live calls on our broadcast,” said Miller. “From there we’ll continue to evaluate other potential augmented reality integrations in the future.”

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