I always had some good answers up my sleeve, but report published by Deloitte Digital and Snap Inc at the begging of summer 2021 beats all my arguments. They made a very detailed study of AR and its influence on users and businesses, provided information had lots of interesting statistics.
* it should be noted that research was carried out by Snapchat and it describes Snapchat users, who are more acquainted with AR rather than Instagram, Facebook or TikTok users. Nevertheless, mentioned above platforms are developing and soon they will catch up with the numbers.
Now I will submit short summary with useful information from the research and afterwards give comments.
Key figures:
- AR provides twice as much visual attention, which leads to better memorability and more powerful consumer reactions
- Interaction with products that have AR results in 94% increase in conversion.
- 76% of users want to use AR in everyday life
- AR is not only for children or zoomers, as many people think. The largest percentage of users are millennials, and even boomers understand and use this technology.
How does AR affect brands?
- Users are 30% more likely to pay attention to a brand if it has AR
- 46% of users claim that AR gives them confidence in the quality of the product
- 75% note they are willing to pay more for the product if AR is available
- Purchases made after AR tests result in reduction of refunds by 25%
- Consumers who interact with the brand’s AR are more likely to share their experiences with family and friends by 26% and buy products up to 20% more frequently.
Development
An average usage of AR in Snapchat now reaches up to 500,000,000 minutes and more than 8,000,000 photos or videos are created. These numbers will only rise with increase of audience awareness and access to AR experiences and content (by 2025 numbers will reach 31,000,000).
The main advantage of Social AR is accessibility. Standalone apps are often much more functional, but first they need to be downloaded and installed. Social AR (AR inside Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook apps) allows you to use and share AR once you see it with single tap on the screen of your device.
By 2025, 60% of the population (or everyone who uses social networks) will be frequent AR users.
"As AR evolves, it will revolutionize our lives and will become as significant of a technology shift as the web or mobile was to society, changing how we view and interact with the world around us."
— Allan Cook Digital Reality Business Leader в Deloitte Digital
Statistics speak for themselves, is there anything else left to say?
So this is it. I don’t think there is another tool available on the market that can improve communication with your current or potential client as much as AR can.
For those interested, here is a link to the full version of the report.