Vikram Haridas is an accomplished product manager with extensive experience in leveraging AI and machine learning to enhance FinTech platforms. At IvyCamp, he spearheaded the creation of an online platform that matched investors and mentors with startups through advanced algorithms and weighted rating systems. Vikram’s expertise includes database management, data-driven decision-making, and the introduction of efficient workflows. His strategic vision and technical expertise have significantly improved the functionality and user experience of FinTech products. With a deep understanding of product road mapping and operational efficiency, Vikram is a thought leader in integrating AI and machine learning into financial technology solutions.
Integrating AR/VR and AI creates an incredibly immersive and interactive customer experience. The adoption of AR and VR is rapidly moving forward, with big players like Apple and Meta leading the charge. Apple’s Vision Pro fetches for $3,499, promising to integrate AR/VR into daily life, and Meta brings forth the more affordable entry point with Quest 3 for $499, targeting gamers and enterprises alike. The companies are moving AR/VR from niche applications to mainstream use as a key way to enhance customer engagement and interaction with technology.
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How innovative are AR and VR in the eCommerce industry by Scott Rigdon
Further addition of AI will enable consumer behaviour analysis to improve recommendation systems. With increased accessibility of these technologies, they are expected to have a large influence on the shifts in consumer behaviour and also extend usage to more areas, including education and training.
This concentration of technologies will create highly engaging, efficient, and personalised shopping experiences that drive customer satisfaction and enhance engagement. Also, these technologies align with strategic objectives like customer experience and operational efficiencies. The immersive nature of AR & VR joined by AI presents a very powerful solution for the future of B2B e-commerce.
To be fair, the main reason for AR/VR integration into a B2B e-commerce business is to enhance product demos and shopping experiences.
Source: How Will AR, VR, and AI Shape Furniture E-Commerce Shopping by Harshal Shah
Creating VR experiences can teleport a customer into a virtual environment with ease where customers can explore product features in an immersive setting. For instance, Cisco integrated VR to come up with a 3D interactive product catalogue. This solution allowed global sales teams, channel partners, and customers to access product details without physically shipping products, led to reduced costs and brought down sales cycles.
Virtual try-on experiences with AR allow customers to see products in their own environment before purchase, reducing returns, and, as a result, conversion rates go up due to increased satisfaction. For instance, IKEA’s AR app called IKEA Place offers users an opportunity to see furniture in their own spaces quite accurately. Firstly, it scans a room using computer vision to determine its dimensions, after which a user can place 3D models of IKEA products fitting seamlessly within the environment.
Source: How augmented reality is changing e-commerce shopping
Furthermore, sophisticated AI algorithms scan through these options based on the dimensions filtered out to retain only suitable items in the list. This integration of AR with AI further strengthens the shopping experience, making it easier for a user to choose furniture that best fits their space.
Today it’s essential to offer customers personalised product recommendations. AI algorithms might suggest relevant items and even build adaptive shopping journeys by analysing user behaviour data.
Source: How Augmented Reality is Shaping the Future of E-Commerce Marketing by Jimit Mehta
Automation tools Apify and OpenAI made an onboarding process for merchants seamless at Groupon, resulting in more than 10,000 merchants onboarded per quarter. AI-powered analytics give merchants actionable insights to maximise sales by providing real-time supply and demand data to guide sellers in optimising deals, leading to a 45% boost in conversion rates.
The power of AR/VR to build an immersive experience for product demos and virtual shopping experiences within a B2B e-commerce platform is mind-blowing. At PlayShifu, customers can interact with built 3D models of educational toys and games by using an AR app on their phones. More than that, adding animation, sound, and gestures to the AR/VR demos highlights some critical features of the product. That way, it will be more understandable for customers how toys function and what their educational benefits are. As a product manager, I believe it offers a more engaging and memorable demo rather than the traditional ones.
Also, it turned out to be beneficial to develop a VR showroom through which customers can log in, view the product catalogue, and receive all the details about the products. Some of the features can also be experienced to a certain extent. I am certain that VR technology helps a product manager deliver a personalised experience to customers and, as a result, online shopping seems to be more convenient for them rather than visiting physical shops.
It’s effective to analyse customer interactions and behaviours from the AR/VR demos and virtual showrooms using AI algorithms to get more details on which features and products customers find interesting. At PlayShifu, we automated some of the processes for generating product recommendations, sending personalised offers, and following up on customers with the help of AI-powered chatbots and email marketing tools. This keeps our sales team clear to do high-value work while giving a high level of service.
In a nutshell, integration AR/VR with AI into your roadmap isn’t some trend. More companies are implementing these technologies since they are getting cheaper and the economic viability in deploying such systems goes up with the drop in operational expenses. However, a recent study by MIT suggests that despite all the possible automation, about 23% of vision-based tasks only are cost-effective to automate in consideration of their high initial setup and maintenance costs. In this area, making an advance in model optimisation and with better infrastructure, can significantly enhance efficiency and scalability.
This has been not only driving sales but also providing important data to improve your product strategy and make important business decisions that will redefine how B2B e-commerce is going to look tomorrow. With these advanced technologies, you can provide highly immersive experiences to engage and retain your customers. That strategic alignment will drive not only growth but also give us a strong position as leaders in an ever-competitive marketplace. Now, as we move into the future, let us welcome these innovations with open minds and a commitment to excellence. Only then can we create a future where our products will not only satisfy the needs of clients but also their expectations, laying out the road toward long-term success and strategic growth in B2B e-commerce.
