Snap is Betting Big on AR and Social Commerce

Augmented Reality will forever change how consumers shop online and interact with the digital world.

Snapchat is more than a Social Network

Snapchat is much more than a platform for taking selfies, posting stories, and cute filters. The company changed its name to Snap Inc. in 2016 because Snapchat is bigger than just an app on your phone. The co-founder of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, has grandiose plans for the future revolving around Augmented Reality (AR). The company believes that by 2025 nearly 75% of the global population and all smartphone users will use AR frequently. Augmented reality will have a more profound impact on our lives than the iPhone. 

E-commerce 2.0 

A primary focus of Snap is to utilize AR to enhance e-commerce. CEO Evan Spiegel says, “I think a lot of retailers are really excited about the potential for AR to reduce returns in the future, which is obviously a huge benefit in terms of cost savings, but also in terms of the environment.” 

In 2021, the fundamentals of the online shopping experience are nearly identical to how online shopping was done in the early 2000s with just a few less clicks to checkout, faster shipping (thank you, Amazon), and a sleeker UI (user interface). The mechanics are the same: browse an online marketplace, view the product, and complete the checkout process. There’s one key element online shopping lacks; interaction with products. The current inability to interact with products is one of the few reasons some consumers still prefer a traditional retail shopping experience. Augmented reality will revolutionize e-commerce, allowing consumers to interact with products, view them from different angles, evaluate the texture, and place it in the context of a room or on a face. This will make for an excellent shopping experience and allow the merchant to tell a story in a more personal form. Finally, the online shopping experience will mimic all the features of a brick-and-mortar retail store. 

Snap Lenses are the differentiating feature that helps it stand out from competitors like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Business Profiles on Snapchat allow customers to try on any product in their catalog as a Lens, then make a purchase in the Snapchat app. Lenses will appear or disappear on Snapchat according to product inventory. As companies like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat have all integrated e-commerce into their platforms, it’s evident that the future of social media is digital and retail services

Snap is not the only company that understands the implications AR will have on e-commerce. The largest retailer in the world, Walmart, has acquired Zeekit, an Israeli-based company that combines fashion and technology through its dynamic virtual fitting room platform to create a significantly enhanced customer and social experience. Walmart says customers will simply upload their picture or choose from a series of models that best represent their height, shape, and skin tone to instantly see themselves in any item of clothing, mimicking the experience of trying on clothes in a store. Virtual outfits can be shared with friends bringing an inclusive and social experience to digital shopping. 

People are excited about AR

Snap has published a report on the potential for branded AR tools to influence shopping behavior and how AR tools can change the e-commerce process in a substantial amount of ways. A survey taken from people aged 13-49 reveals over half have used AR in the past, and over a third have used branded AR, which is hyper-immersive and incredibly engaging. Brands like Netflix, Nike, and hundreds more have created branded AR interactive lenses on the Snapchat app. It’s a way to make your brand’s advertisement an experience that can be fun for the user. The survey goes on to reveal that 76% of consumers think AR will play a role in the future of shopping over the next five years and 2 in 3 consumers who’ve used branded AR for shopping agree they are more likely to purchase after a branded AR experience. 

We Need Hardware Optimized for AR 

Augmented reality is already here, but it’s not made to be used on a smartphone. The hardware is still being developed to fully take advantage of AR’s potential. The immersive experience of AR is not designed to be used on the smartphone that is limited to whatever can fit inside the bezels of a glass screen. There are currently AR applications such as IKEA Place and apps like Amazon that have features that allow you to see what a product would like in a space, but the problem is it’s too hard to tell staring at a screen. Immersive technology deserves immersive hardware like the AR glasses Snap, Apple, Samsung, Google, and Meta are developing. 

Snap is poised to be at the forefront of the next AR shift as they’re developing its own AR-enabled smart glasses called Spectacles. The fourth generation of Spectacles is their first true augmented reality glasses that allow businesses to easily add AR versions of their online catalogs for Snapchat’s 500 million monthly users to try and purchase. A new feature, called Connected Lenses, allows multiple people to see and interact with the same scene in AR. CEO Evan Spiegel says, “You have to invent a whole new way of interacting with computing when it’s volumetric and integrated with the space around you...so I don’t see Snapchat transitioning to wearables….but one of the things that’s really fun is to think about what the new interaction of paradigms can look like.” 

While it’s probable Apple will lead the industry in sales of AR glasses, Snap will remain a massive player in the space by creating software designed for the AR world for consumers to use and advertisers to leverage. 

Developments from Snap should be taken seriously as they have already revolutionized the social network industry by introducing 24-hour stories that have been replicated by Meta’s platforms Facebook and Instagram. They are now leading the AR revolution. Snap recognizes the future of our digital world will be 3-Dimensional. Creators have developed more than 2 million AR lenses with billions of plays. New AR features like Scan and Landmarkers are further making their augmented reality world vision come to fruition. 

What is the Scan Feature? 

The scan feature lets users turn the Snap Camera into a search engine by simply pointing the camera at something they want more information about. The feature is being used by nearly 200 million users at least once a month, according to Snap. It’s integrated with Amazon, so when a user scans an item, they can see if it’s available on the marketplace. 

Snap’s acquisition of the company Screenshop, an app that lets you upload screenshots of clothing and shop for similar items, has accelerated the development of the feature. Scan can recommend similar clothes based on what you’re looking at and let you buy clothes you discover. The feature will also be integrated into the camera roll section of Snapchat called Memories, allowing people to shop for clothes based on what they have saved from their camera. 

Another feature of Scan is called camera shortcuts. It’s a combination of a camera mode, soundtrack, and a lens. When a user points the camera at something like the ocean, lenses optimized for the water will be shown complemented by a song clip and color filter. 

What are Landmarkers?

Landmarkers on Snapchat will change how we interact with the world. Snap is reconstructing global landmarks and compressing them into an AR lens that allows anyone anywhere in the world to interact with them. It will turn the world into a customizable living museum. 

Snap’s Future

The younger generations love Snapchat. According to Snap Chief Business Officer Jeremi Gorman, 90% of 13-24 year-olds and 75% of 13-34 year-olds are on the platform. Over the last three years, revenue has risen by an average of about 45%. Snap believes its revenue can grow by 50% or more over the next few years as augmented reality hardware becomes more popular with consumers.