AR shopping tools reduce returns and increase conversion in specific categories. Here's the honest state of AR ecommerce...
Augmented reality ecommerce has been "the next big thing" since Google Glass launched in 2013. The next big thing keeps not arriving. But something real has happened in the last three years: specific categories — furniture, eyewear, shoes, and some beauty products — have proven ROI from AR try-before-you-buy features. Other categories remain experiments. Irish retailers should build AR where the evidence is clear and ignore the hype elsewhere.
Furniture and home décor. IKEA Place (launched 2017, rebuilt on ARKit 2019) lets shoppers place a virtual sofa in their living room via phone camera. The evidence: Shoppers who use AR features convert at 11x higher rates than those who don't, per IKEA's own data. The reason is clear: a shopper uncertain whether a sofa fits the room removes uncertainty with AR. Confidence → purchase.
Irish furniture retailers — Harvey Norman, DFS, MADE.com (UK-Irish), Hickeys Furniture — have varying levels of AR deployment. MADE.com ran a full AR catalogue before its 2022 administration. Harvey Norman uses Shopify's native AR features for select product categories.
Eyewear. Virtual glasses try-on using face mesh technology (MediaPipe Face Mesh or custom AR models) is the most proven AR commerce application. Specsavers, Optical Express, and independent Irish opticians have deployed virtual try-on. Zenni Optical reports AR try-on users are 27% more likely to complete purchase than non-AR users.
The technology: Face AR tools are available via Snap Camera Kit, Google ARCore, and specialist providers (GlassesUSA's Ditto technology, Warby Parker's AR feature). Integration into a Shopify store requires developer work but is increasingly plug-and-play.
Footwear. Nike's Try On feature (powered by Snap AR) lets iPhone users see how a shoe looks on their foot. Return rate reduction for shoes is the primary use case — shoes are the highest-return category in fashion ecommerce (25–35% return rate). AR doesn't eliminate sizing uncertainty (the main driver of shoe returns) but reduces aesthetic uncertainty (colour, styling).
For Irish shoe retailers (Shoestring, Caprice Shoes, Shoes.ie), AR try-on is available via Snap's AR shopping lens SDK or Shopify AR with 3D model support.
Beauty and cosmetics. Virtual foundation shade matching, lipstick colour try-on, and eyeshadow preview. L'Oréal's ModiFace technology (acquired 2018) powers AR beauty for most major brands. Brown Thomas stocks L'Oréal and Yves Saint Laurent brands with ModiFace integration available via the brand apps/websites. Independent Irish beauty retailers lack this — but third-party platforms (Perfect Corp YouCam Makeup) provide white-label AR beauty tools.
Clothing. The physics simulation of fabric drape, the interaction of lighting with textile texture, and the accurate representation of how a garment fits a specific body type have not been solved at commercial quality for 2D AR. Results look artificial and potentially increase dissatisfaction rather than reducing it.
3D body scanning (Zeekit, 3DLOOK) enables more accurate virtual clothing fitting, but requires the user to complete a scanning step that most shoppers won't do. Adoption rates are low.
Food and grocery. AR has been proposed for visualising portion sizes or recipe outputs, but the use case is weak and conversion data poor. Not a deployment priority.
Electronics. Placing a TV on a virtual wall is possible with Shopify AR, but the technical complexity (cable management, remote interactions) and the dominance of specification comparison over aesthetics in electronics buying make AR a weak tool for this category.
Shopify's native AR feature requires:
No additional plugin needed. The 3D model is the investment.
3D model cost: €100–400 per product from a professional 3D modeller via Fiverr or Upwork. At scale, automated 3D scan workflows (Capture by Polycam, Matterport) can generate models from product photography, reducing cost to €20–50 per product.
The priority list for 3D model investment: furniture (highest AR conversion lift), large home accessories, outdoor products (garden furniture, BBQ grills), lighting fixtures.
Return rates in Irish ecommerce (Retail Excellence Ireland 2024):
The cost of an Irish ecommerce return is approximately €8–15 when factoring return shipping, processing, restocking, and potential product degradation. For a furniture retailer shipping 500 items per month at 10% return rate, that's 50 returns × €12 = €600/month in return costs.
AR reduces uncertainty-driven returns — specifically "it looked different than I expected" and "it didn't fit the space." These account for approximately 40% of furniture returns and 30% of footwear returns.
Even a 5 percentage point return rate reduction (10% → 5%) on a €100k/month furniture business saves €3,600/month in return costs — €43,200/year. Against a 3D modelling investment of €5,000–15,000 and annual Shopify AR (included in Shopify subscription), the payback is under a year.
3D product models (GLTF, USDZ) with proper structured data (schema.org Product + schema.org ThreeDBModel extension) appear in Google Shopping with 3D interactive previews. Google has been surfacing 3D product previews in mobile search since 2020. Irish retailers with 3D models have a visual differentiation advantage in Shopping results.
The AR investment therefore delivers three returns: higher conversion, lower returns, and improved search visibility. For priority categories (furniture, eyewear, footwear), this is a clear investment case. For clothing and electronics, the evidence doesn't yet justify the cost.
Michael English is a technology entrepreneur and writer focused on AI, ecommerce, and enterprise technology. He co-founded IMPT (impt.io) and BMIC (bmic.ai). Based in Ireland.