How is this for a complete game changer: house plants are being sold through an Augmented Reality app.
Augmented Reality (AR) is quickly becoming more mainstream, especially after the recent introduction of AR functionalities in iPhones. A business owner I spoke to recently dismissed this as just another hyped up trend, stating ‘this will never impact my business, it is just a passing fad like so many other technologies over the years’. I asked him if he has considered the impact of thousands of app developers who are all asking themselves what AR is, how they can apply it, and how they can make money with it by selling their apps on the iTunes Store. I asked him to consider the size of this informal workforce. And the power their work could have to disrupt life and business as we know it.
With this in mind, let’s look at Plant Life Balance, an augmented reality app hat allows you to virtually introduce plants into your own home. Not an imaginary space created by a computer. No, it uses photos you take of the living areas inside and outside your home. Then it introduces science-based recommendations of which plants will work best to improve air quality and general well being.
This is a game changer application that can go far beyond the use of just plants:
- How will it change home renovation decisions? Imagine if you can design your virtual kitchen with new counter tops, new appliances, new cabinets, and new floors. All through one integrated app, by using photographs of your own home. Without ever setting foot outside your home or making one sales call.
- How will it change the purchase of clothing, eye wear and foot wear, all products that have been exploring this type of sales channel?
- Imagine how much value this type of technology application can build. By merely taking existing products and positioning them in ways that reduce the consumer’s purchase risk and buying time. At the same time, it will increase the integration of solutions and educate you as part of the process.
- Consider the ease with which consumers will be able to buy when they have virtually tested out the options, and do not necessarily consider it all that important to touch the products in your display areas? How will you maintain connection with these consumers and get them to spend dollars with your business?
Imagine a customer buying your product and telling you that they have lived with the product virtually for a few days or weeks already. They will know whether the products work for them. Or not.
We are in for an interesting ride. Online sales are still growing exponentially with no end in sight and no clear understanding of how much it will disrupt buying patterns. New AR applications such as this app will radically change how we sell, and how we should position our companies to be future-ready. If your revenue channels are not yet clear, and if your business is not yet designed to serve the revenue channels of the future, then it is time to do something about it.
