The makers of the photo app Snapchat want to expand the business with virtual fittings beyond their own platform. The technology, with which users can see, for example, sunglasses or shoes in the display on their body, is now also being offered to other companies. The US sunglass retailer Goodr is the first customer to use it in its online shop. The offer is to be combined with size recommendations from the Berlin company Fit Analytics, which was acquired in 2020, as the Snapchat operator Snap announced on Thursday.
Snapchat has been using the integration of digital objects into real-world environments – known as augmented reality (AR) – for fun features, among other things, for years. Virtual trying on of fashion, accessories or cosmetics also became more popular, especially during the pandemic. A change in strategy is that Snap is no longer just trying to use the ability to lure brands onto its own platform, but to diversify it more broadly. Snap has recently been hit hard by the downturn in the online advertising market and expects sales to decline in the current quarter.
Fit Analytics specializes in recommending the right size based on large amounts of data about ordered and returned clothing, among other things. Customers include About You, Tommy Hilfiger, Hugo Boss and Calvin Klein with around 100 million monthly users. The idea behind the new offer is to offer size recommendations and virtual fittings from a single source, said Fit Analytics founder and current Snap manager Sebastian Schulze.
While the virtual try-on of glasses and shoes also works dynamically in motion, when it comes to clothing, “we’re still on the way there,” Schulze admitted. A 2D model of a dress, for example, is currently projected onto the body in the display instead of being shown in motion. “But I’m confident that we can do it in the next two or three years,” said Schulze. “In the long term, you can also imagine that the shops will look completely different, so that there will no longer be any changing rooms” – but these would be replaced by AR glasses or displays. (dpa)