Client Background

Our client is a Canadian luxury fireplace manufacturer. The company has been committed to producing high quality, energy efficient and environmentally friendly luxury fireplaces.

Pain Points

Our client has to participate in various international trade shows to increase sales. As a small and medium-sized family business, the company has a limited marketing budget. It is very costly and time consuming to ship the sample fireplaces, clear customs. The company also needs to purchase a big booth to showcase its product. Our client required a more economical yet effective solution.

Solution

We found an augmented reality technology company incubated by the University of Waterloo.

According to Wikipedia, augmented reality is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are “augmented” by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory.

Based on our client’s request, a solution was designed that can display the products in real time, real size and in the actual environment. The client staff can turn, zoom, move and manipulate the product to demonstrate all of its details. They can also simulate an animated 3D models. Beyond the static model, the solution gives the potential customers at a show a more intuitive and authentic experience.

Challenges Facing the Traditional Industry

Competition in the traditional industries is fierce, especially in the retail, cosmetics and automotive industries. Consumers need to experience products in advance and choose personalized products that match their taste, environment and affordability.

The traditional industries have faced more low-cost competitors, unable to take price as a competitive advantage, especially for hotels (competing with Airbnb), restaurants (competing with take-out O2O companies), retail (competing with online stores). Companies have to promote their products in other ways to showcase their uniqueness. Consumers spend much more time online for shopping and entertaining.

The Traditional Industries Mainly Face the Following Problems:

  1. A wide variety of products: difficult for consumers to make a choice.
  2. The time cost for consumers to choose products is high.
  3. It is impossible to judge whether the selected item is suitable for the consumer and its surrounding environment.
  4. The store can’t quickly find the product that the customer wants
  5. Limited stock, not as convenient as online shopping
  6. Heavy goods can’t be easily moved / distributed

AI-Powered AR Solution

  • Web version: no need to design another mobile application, user experience is smooth
  • AR-Marker-based real-time simulation display saves the cost of large-scale exhibitions and exhibits transportation.
  • Make personalized product recommendations more realistic: Consumers click on the ad to see 3D product renderings.
  • Can show more product styles
  • Higher product interactivity
  • Change product appearance in real time to provide comprehensive product information

Outcomes

Purchasing Product

  • No delay, 1:1 full experience
  • Effectively reduce marketing costs
  • Increase customer revenue
  • Improve the consumer experience
  • Increase consumer interactivity
  • Get richer consumer data