In a virtual try-on (VTO) partnership where scale meets scale, Amazon Fashion and Snapchat have agreed to connect products to people through a new digital fit deal aimed at moving goods and reducing returns.
Starting with eyewear, Snap’s new AR Lens filter pairing with Amazon’s massive product inventory is touted as a major step in the evolution of social commerce through the digital enhancement of the user experience. purchase.
“Through the combined innovation and technology between Snap and Amazon, we are unlocking exciting and fun new trial experiences for hundreds of millions of Snapchatters,” said Ben Schwerin, senior vice president of partnerships at Snap, in a press release. “AR glasses are just the first step in our partnership, and we look forward to continuing our innovation together.”
According to the release, the pact will allow customers to digitally explore, shop and try on thousands of eyewear styles directly on Snapchat, then shop seamlessly through the Amazon Fashion store.
Mobile shopping takes center stage in the new Amazon-Snap VR pairing, with the ad noting, “More and more customers are turning to mobile shopping – over the past year, Amazon Fashion customers have ordered over a billion fashion items on mobile devices”.
See also: Luxury resale contest skyrockets as ‘What Goes Around’ opens Amazon store
At this point, Muge Erdirik Dogan, President of Amazon Fashion, added that “millions of customers regularly use Amazon’s AR shopping technology across all categories of our stores, with the virtual try-on for eyewear being a long-time customer favourite. We’re excited to partner with Snapchat and further expand AR shopping for fashion brands and today’s new generation of digital shoppers. »
This all aligns with PYMNTS research on the growth of mobile commerce. According to the study “Digital Economy Payments: November 2022 US Edition – The Rise Of Mobile eCommerce”, “mobile commerce, or mCommerce, is expected to account for 44% of all digital sales by 2025”.
The e-commerce giant has been busy maneuvering its Amazon Stores concept to make shopping searches more accurate and using technology to improve the odds of online conversion. In October, Amazon Luxury Stores made a breakthrough as recalcitrant brands such as Chanel, Hermès and LVMH finally entered the market via resale agreements with sellers, namely What Goes Around Comes Around.
Get the study: Payments in the Digital Economy: November 2022 US Edition — The Rise of Mobile E-Commerce
A strategy to reduce returns
As virtual fittings and other technologies evolve to monetize social audiences, one of the reasons e-commerce operators love the concept is to reduce the flood of returns, especially the post-holiday deluge. which happens every January when unwanted gifts flood into merchants.
For context, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reported last January that “retailers expect more than $761 billion in merchandise sold last year to be returned by consumers,” adding that “the 2021 total return rate (16.6%) is up from 10.6 percent in 2020, but line returns in 2021 are in line with recent years averaging 20.8 percent.
Whether that 20.8% figure on e-commerce returns is a sustainable benchmark will be tested in what is expected to be the toughest holiday selling season since the stock market crash of 2008.
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