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Almost a decade ago, “smart mirrors” were considered a key element in the “Retail 3.0" revolution, as Rebecca Minkoff’s pilot was called in 2014. Later in 2016, the head of Neiman Marcus’s Innovation Lab said the mirrors were a way to add “wit and whimsy” to physical shopping. But the technology, which let people in stores virtually try on products or request new items from the fitting room, failed to take off.
Now, brands and retailers are giving smart mirrors — specifically augmented reality (AR) mirrors — a second look. In new versions, digital content overlays reflections. Similar to AR filters on phones, they can include anything from digital apparel and accessories to product details, gaming prompts and fantastical elements to enhance the appearance of the viewer’s environment. The technology can track the body, so it follows people as they twist and turn to test the limits of the tech. They can also detect and respond to specific motions, such as a swipe of the hand to change the outfit or the experience.
Nike began testing smart mirrors in its Brooklyn store last autumn for digital accessories try-on and games. This spring, a Men’s Wearhouse store tested it for formalwear visualisation during its prom shopping season in New Jersey, while Tommy Hilfiger brought it to customers in London, Berlin and Milan to try on its Tommy Hilfiger X Shawn Mendes collection (some with digital-only enhancements). Earlier this month, Coach debuted digital bags via an AR mirror in the store window of its Soho, New York location as part of its wide Tabby bag campaign, and Mugler just opened a series of installations for its new fragrance in Paris, Berlin and Munich to give viewers otherworldly extras.
“The zeitgeist is on our side here,” says Maxim Raykhrud, chief product officer at Zero10, which provided the tech for the Tommy Hilfiger and Coach pilots. The fashion AR try-on company also opened an AR clothing pop-up store with Crosby Studios during New York Fashion Week last September. He sees AR mirrors as a key step toward the overall path toward mainstream AR adoption. “It feels like everyone got on this train.”
This resurgence is both technical — drastic improvements in quality have been made to AR in the past few years — and cultural. During the pandemic, people and brands who were previously not trying new technologies like these no longer had much of a choice, and that accelerated people’s openness to trying new things, says Suzy Davidkhanian, VP of content at market research firm Insider Intelligence, who leads coverage of retail and e-commerce. “And, I think that will carry on to the mirror.” She acknowledges that the first go-round wasn’t a roaring success, and notes that the tech works best with guidance from an associate.
Most iterations of early smart mirrors did not include AR. Of those that did, the quality was not good enough to show clothing overlaid on the body; even if it was, the computing power wouldn’t have been fast enough to keep up. Now, the tech is getting ready for the spotlight. Zero10, which started as an app, launched an AR mirror for brands to use last October. In April, Snapchat launched its own AR mirror as part of its AR Enterprise Services (ARES), a service to help businesses use AR tools. Tech studio Ffface.me has also developed a mirror arm of its business. While AR might solve an obvious pain point in online shopping, an estimated 65 per cent of apparel, footwear and accessories purchases are made in stores, says Carolina Arguelles Navas, head of global AR product strategy and product marketing at Snap, Inc. “In-store is not going anywhere.”
Navas points to myriad potential challenges in physical shopping that could be improved with an AR mirror, including the hesitation among consumers to physically try everything on (in addition to dressing room wait times). It could offer the opportunity to narrow product selections, increase product discovery and visualise additional items that are out of stock locally. There is also the intrigue factor, with multiple retailers finding that AR mirrors can attract attention and increase time in store, which has shown to increase basket size, she adds. In other words, AR mirrors can be a welcome tool in building experiential retail moments.
Currently, just 12.4 per cent of US adults use AR for shopping, Insider Intelligence reports, but AR will have 21.1 million more US users than VR this year, and the gap will continue to widen.
Expect more pilots, and more products, in the near future. Already, existing partners of Zero10 are extending their plans, and more brand partnerships are in the works, Zero10’s Raykhrud says. The industry is also anxiously awaiting next week’s Apple developer’s conference in hopes that the iPhone maker will announce its first mixed reality glasses; this would add even more momentum to AR. “With AR mirrors, the user flow is much closer to what we will be getting in the future with AR glasses or MR [mixed reality] glasses,” Raykhrud says. “You walk in front and — bam! — you see yourself wearing AR stuff. They are another leap toward that goal because they offer a portal-like experience.”
AR mirrors are not the end-all-be-all, but rather a stepping stone toward a post-smartphone future in which a yet-to-launch device provides access to a digital layer over the world around us, says Cathy Hackl, chief futurist and chief metaverse officer at consultancy Journey and founder of the luxury tech label VerseLuxe. They “prepare audiences to see themselves wearing virtual fashion in real time, in the physical world, in full body and not through a small rectangle they hold in their hands.”
However, hurdles remain: clothing try-on technology is still not able to accurately reflect fit and size in a way that replaces the fitting room. The right purpose for fashion, then, might be fun. “We don’t truly consider it a ‘try-on’ experience,” says Daria Shapovalova, co-founder of digital-only, multi-brand fashion retailer DressX, which first began testing its AR mirror in department store Printemps two years ago. “It is a fun experience.” The same fun factor that encouraged early users of Snapchat to indulge in silly rainbow filters ultimately led to utilitarian purposes such as trying on sneakers and lipstick before clicking out to buy, Snap’s Navas points out, and focusing on fun enables brands to learn a lot in a low-risk way.
Reframing uses and expectations
The first generation of smart mirrors technically worked, but failed to become culturally popular in part because they were foreign to consumers and didn’t solve an urgent problem. “Obviously, the AR mirror has to have a purpose, and what might have killed the previous iteration of magic mirrors is that they were there as a utility tool,” Raykhrud, of Zero10, says. “That might not be the right thing for the world of fashion.”
That’s why many of these new iterations focus on affinity and engagement (which have also emerged as valuable metrics in social metaverse spaces). Nike’s gamified AR mirror experience to score store discounts, which was made using Snap tech, was so popular that it created a crowd near the checkout line. Nike moved it closer to the front — which ended up attracting foot traffic, Snap’s Navas says, adding that emotional connections like that, while more challenging to measure, can have a long-term impact on loyalty and brand affinity.
To measure success, brands and developers look at factors such as how many people tried the tool (and for how long), how long they spent in store, their brand affinity and their likelihood of returning. They also can look at overall social mentions, as many of these experiences inspire people to share them on social media.
Another advantage, Raykhrud says, is being able to create experiences that aren’t possible otherwise. Of the pieces available to try on from the Tommy Hilfiger and Shawn Mendes experience, which was made with Zero10, three had special animated effects that are only possible in AR. Mugler, meanwhile, animated its Angel Elixir fragrance with a special digital effect in the vein of imaginative fragrance ads, via Ffface.me (which uses Meta’s engine). And Coach, working with Zero10, enabled passersby to its store window to instantly try on its popular Tabby bags, while also giving the wearer wings and other special effects.
Consumer feedback on the attractiveness of Coach’s display window has almost doubled since the launch of the AR mirror, Raykhrud says, and about 50 per cent more people are entering the store, he says. Anecdotally, he adds, the display tends to attract a lot of attention.
While clothing try-on doesn’t understand sizes yet, it can help to give a preliminary understanding of how something would look in general, says Dima Kornilov, CEO of Ffface.me, which provided the tech to Mugler and has worked with Prada and L’Oréal. Natalia Modenova, co-founder of DressX, likens it to holding up a dress on a hanger in front of a mirror.
Menswear retailer Men’s Wearhouse solved a uniquely specific use-case this spring, when it tested an AR mirror from Snapchat for a few months during its highly popular prom season. While the store was crowded, young shoppers could narrow down their choices and preferences using the mirror, making later conversations with a consultant more focused, says Carolyn Pollock, CMO of Men’s Wearhouse parent company Tailored Brands.
And, of course, with that utility, there was an element of fun: the mirror looks like a standard mirror until someone walks in front of it; then, a fun face filter pops on the screen, signalling to the shopper that the mirror is equipped with AR. “Even if AR doesn’t tell you what size you need, it gives you this feeling,” DressX’s Modenova says. “lt immediately becomes personal on a subconscious level.”
This immediacy, in which consumers need only to walk up for it to start working, is another change that these new devices bring. It doesn’t require the consumer to scan a code, download an app, sign in or position their own phone. People are ready to approach and press one button to get a hit of their digital dopamine, Ffface.me’s Kornilov says, who adds it’s just as easy for brand partners to get started too.
What’s next
Pollock says that for the time being, it would be costly to expand the technology to the more than 600 physical Men’s Wearhouse stores, but she is eager to expand uses of the technology once the devices scale and become less expensive. Currently, retailers generally face the option of renting mirrors by the month (similar to a software-as-a-service model), or buying them outright. Monthly rental fees can climb into the tens of thousands of dollars, or more than $100,000 to buy.
More features are also coming. Zero10 is working on CRM integration so customers can engage with loyalty programmes. Davidkhanian, of Insider Intelligence, foresees an opportunity for the mirrors to suggest complimentary items. Pollock, of Men’s Wearhouse, could see an opportunity to try different combinations of pieces, and to upload a fuller catalogue of inventory into the experience. Ffface.me is adding the option for consumers to physically print out instant photos as a take-home souvenir.
So far, Snapchat research has found that 35 per cent of US consumers would go out of their way to visit a store that had this type of technology, in part to improve issues such as product discovery and consideration — and that’s only the people who are aware of it, Snap’s Navas says. “But, how many shoppers have never heard of it but will tell you of these challenges?” She adds that while it currently can’t nail precise sizing, artificial intelligence tools are being developed to complement the AR experience, rather than requiring one technology that does it all. After all, she asks, “Does it really need to be perfect to solve a problem?”
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