The fashionistas in our lives have been promised this for a long time now. ‘In the future’, they’d say, ‘you’ll be the mannequin. You won’t need to imagine what the outfit would look like on you. You’ll know it.’
This is the biggest obstacle preventing online shopping from completely taking over retail browsing. And the magic bullet may have finally been built. eBay is launching a new version of their eBay Fashion iPhone app. Virtually try on sunglasses simply by using your phone’s front-facing camera to take a picture of your face. Then browse through the app to try the glasses on. You move. The glasses move with you.
This is what the tech world calls “augmented reality.” And it’s a huge leap forward for e-commerce at large. But there’s a reason they used sunglasses for the example. Getting women to buy jeans using this technology? Needing the perfect fit, and not just the perfect look, marks a clear retail advantage for years to come.